Full text of Work of Children on Truck and Small-Fruit Farms in Southern New Jersey, Bureau Publication No. 132

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P IC K IN G C R A N B E R R IE S .

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CONTENTS.

Page.
Letter of transm ittal.........................................................................................................................
Introduction...................................................................................................................................../ . .

Local workers.................... I ..................................... ........................................ .................................

3 -2 1

T he families...................................................................

1
3

T he children’s w o rk .. ......................................................

7 -1 8

K inds of w ork.........................

8 -1 3

General farm work....... .......................................................................... . .............

Planting and transplanting.................................................................................

H arvesting........... . ............................................................. ......................................

Hours of work.....................................................................................................................

Duration of work........ ■.....................................................................................................

Earnings....................................

Farm work in relation to school attendance. I ...................................................... ....
Migratory laborers............................................

18
2 3 -5 6

Engaging seasonal labor.................................................................................................

T he fam ilies............................................................................................ ........................ ...........

T he children’s work.....................................

3 3-37

K inds of w ork......... ....................... ................................................................................

Hours of work..............................................

Duration of work............................... 1 ................................................... ............... .........

Earnings........................................................................................................ ................. •_ .

E ffect of migrations on school attendance.................................................................... 4 0 -5 2
School records of children in the families visite d ............................................

School records of Philadelphia children migrating for seasonal farm
w o r k ........................................... .................................................................................. .
Housing the workers........................ ............................... ....: ................................. ...............
S u m m a ry.................................................................................................

42
53

I L L U S T R A T IO N S .
Facing page.
Picking cranberries............................................... .................... ........................................Frontispiece
Cranberry pickers and caretakers of younger children whose mothers p ic k e d .. .

Houses for workers on a 3,000-acre farm .................................................................................

Shanty housing 47 p e r s o n s .... ................ ........................ ................................................... .........

Cooking arrangements of houses shown in top p ic tu r e ...................................................

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U n it t d S t a t e s D e p a r t m e n t

L abor,

Ch il d r e n 's B u r e a u ,

Washington, October 11, 1923.
Si r : I am transmitting herewith a report on the Work of Children
on Truck and Small-Fruit Farms in Southern New Jersey. This
report is the sixth of a series on rural child labor made by the Chil
dren's Bureau and the third in a series dealing specifically with the
employment of children on truck farms.
The investigation upon which this report was based was planned
and carried on under the general supervision of Ellen Nathalie
Matthews, Director of the Industrial Division. The field work was
under the immediate direction of Mary E. Skinner, who is also
responsible for the analysis and interpretation of the findings of the
investigation with the exception of the section on the school records
of Philadelphia children migrating for seasonal work, which was
prepared by Caroline E. Legg.
The bureau desires to express its appreciation of the assistance in
obtaining the facts upon which this study is based given by State,
county, and local school officials, especially Mr. Henry J. Gideon,
director of the bureau of compulsory education of the Philadelphia
public schools, and by county agricultural agents and the social
agencies of Philadelphia.
Respectfully submitted.
G r a c e A b b o t t , Chief.
Hon. James J. D avis ,

Secretary o f Labor.
v

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND SMALL-FRUIT FARMS
IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

INTRODUCTION.
This inquiry into the character and extent of the work of children
in truck and small-fruit growing sections of southern New Jersey is
part of a more comprehensive study by the Children’s Bureau of
child labor on truck farms. Up to the present time it has included,
in addition to the New Jersey area, sections of two other important
truck-farming States of the Atlantic coast— Maryland and Virginia.1
* The large-scale production of vegetables and fruits for shipment to
city markets, a development of comparatively recent years,2 has
resulted in the employment of children living on the truck farms and
in their immediate vicinity, and also of large numbers of children
from near-by cities, who are brought out to the farms when many
hands are needed to help in the harvesting of perishable produce.
New Jersey is a leading State in the production of truck crops. As
far back as 1830 the boats of the farmers of New Jersey, loaded with
fruits and vegetables, could be found at the wharves along the
Delaware and Hudson Rivers,3 and as the urban population increased
the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables, production increased
until southern New Jersey, with its great diversity of soil, favorable
climate, and accessibility to New York and Philadelphia markets,
has become one of the foremost truck-farming centers in the country.4
In 1919,46.5 per cent of the value of New Jersey crops was in potatoes
(28.7 per cent) and other vegetables, principally tomatoes (4.3 per
cent), sweet corn (1.5 per cent), peppers (1 per cent), onions (1 per
cent), and asparagus (0.8 per cent), while only 23.9 per cent was in
cereals and 16 per cent in hay and forage, the principal crops of the
northern part of the State.5 Potatoes and yams are the most impor
tant truck crops, but the State ranks high in the production of many
iChild Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, Children’s Bureau Publication No. 123, and Child Labor and
the Work of Mothers on Norfolk Truck Farms, Children’s Bureau Publication No. 130.
¡Development and Localization of Truck Crops in the United States. U. S. Department of Agriculture
Bulletin702,p .2. Washington, 1917.
*Lee, Francis B.: New Jersey as a Colony and as a State: One of the Original Thirteen. Vol. IV p. 321.
The Publishing Society of New Jersey, New York, 1902.
^Soils of Southern New Jersey and Their Uses. U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin 677, pp. 2 and 11.
Washington, 1918.
6Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. VI, Part I, Agriculture, pp. 239 and 240. Washingf/ v n

1QO O

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND SMALL-FRUIT FARMS.

other vegetables. It grows more than half the peppers produced in
the United States, is second in the production of asparagus and toma
toes,6 and is surpassed only by Massachusetts in cranberry output.
Strawberries, blackberries, dewberries, and raspberries are also
extensively grown, the value of the small fruits, including cranberries,
being placed in 1919 at 4 per cent of the value of all New Jersey crops.7
The present study was made in Cumberlandr Gloucester, and Bur
lington Counties in the southern section of the State. In Cumber
land County great quantities of strawberries, green peas and beans,
peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes are grown. Gloucester County
specializes in asparagus, cantaloupes, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes,
potatoes, and watermelons. Burlington County has a large cranberry
output, and, in addition, produces in quantity green peas and beans,
tomatoes, potatoes, and sweet corn. Four communities in the three
counties were selected as representative.'
Every family, the names of whose children appeared on the school
registers of the selected districts, was visited by an agent of the
bureau, and every farm in the selected territory was canvassed
to find both local children who had not enrolled in school during the
year and seasonal workers from neighboring cities. Four hundred
and ninety-seven families were interviewed in the course of the
study, 243 of whom were local or resident and 254 of whom were
migratory families. Detailed information as to the nature and
extent of work on the truck farms was obtained for every child
under 16 years of age who had worked in the fields at least 12 days
during the year previous to September, 1921. Information of a
more general nature was secured from school authorities, county
agricultural agents, and home-demonstration agents, and from
farmers who depended entirely upon hired labor. A short inquiry
into the methods of recruiting migratory labor was later made in
Philadelphia, the city from which most of the nonresident workers
came. The inquiry was conducted in the autumn when the late
truck crops were being gathered and the cranberry harvest was at
its height, but return visits were made to the territory at other
seasons of the year to observe the work on other important crops.
« New Jersey for Progressive Farmers, pp. 38, 48. Land Registry, Department of Conservation and
Development. Trenton, N. J.
1 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. V I, Part I, Agriculture, p. 239.

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LOCAL WORKERS.
T H E F A M IL IE S .

The children living in the vicinity who work on the truck and smallfruit farms are chiefly those of farmers who own or rent small farms
and depend upon their families for such assistance as they need;
but some are the children of laborers living on the farms where their
fathers work, and others come out from neighboring settlements to
work b y the day.
The majority of these small farmers whose children work in the
fields are of foreign birth, chiefly Italian; the children of native
farmers and of those owning large farms do not, as a rule, work in
the fields. Colonies of Italian farmers in southern New Jersey are
old and numerous.1 In Cumberland County, for instance, Italian
settlements date back about 40 years. East Vineland, or “ New
Italy,” a few miles outside of Vineland, one of the largest of the
colonies, was founded in 1885. A t the present time the population for
miles around East Vineland is almost wholly Italian, and in 1920,
462 of the 3,094 farms of the entire county were operated by Italians
or the American-born children of Italians.
T a b l e I .— Race and n ation a lity o f fath er in fa m ilies w ith w orking children under 16

years o f age, by w ork status o f fa m ily .
Families with working children under 16 years of age.
Resident.
Total.
Total.

Race and nationality
of father.

Rural day
laborers.

Farm.
owners.

Migratory
laborers.

Farm Farm
Per
Per
Per
ten labor
Per
Per
ers.® Num cent Num cent
ants.®
cent
cent
cent Num
Num distri
distri
distri
distri
distri Num
ber.
ber.
ber.
ber.
ber.
bu
bu
bu
bu
bu
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
Total..................

497

100.0

243

100.0

133

100.0

254

100.0

W hite...........................
Native...................
Foreign born.........
Italian............
Russian Jew..
Other..............
Negro...........................

492
104
388
339
26
23
4
1

99.0
20.9
78.1
68.2
5.2
4.6
.8
.2

240
99
141
93
26
22
2
1

98.8
40.7
58.0
38.3
10.7
9.1
.8
.4

132
37
95
64
19
12

99.2
27.8
71.4
48.1
14.3
9.0

11
5
6
3
2
1
1

37
19
18
15

60
38
22
11
5
6
1

98.4
62.3
36.1
18.0
8.2
9.8
1.6

252
5
247
246

99.2
2.0
97.2
96.9

1
2

.4
.8

a Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.

Nearly 50 per cent of the farm owners and tenants whose children
came within the scope of the study had been born in Italy, and 23.4
per cent were foreign born of other nationalities. They lived, as a
i “ Immigrant Farm Colonies in Southern New Jersey,” Monthly Labor Review, Jan., 1921, pp. 1-22.

3
58662°— 24-------2

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

rule, in little communities of their own, and, although practically all
of the families ;had been in this country at least 10 years, in only
about half of them could both parents speak English, and in onesixth of them neither parent spoke the language. In almost onefifth both parents, or the only living parent, could not read or write.
Their farms, those of owners as well as tenants, are small— 11 per
cent of the 145 farmers included in the study because their children
worked, reported that they held 100 acres or more and 32 per cent
that they held 50 acres or more, though in the* State as a whole 28
per cent of the farms were at least 100 acres and 53 per cent were
at least 50 acres. They are a thrifty, stable, hard-working group.
Some of the men work out as farm laborers themselves or allow their
children to hire out when work on the home farm is not pressing.
Others engage in occupations not connected with farming. One
farmer inelu,ded in the study, for example, acted as freight agent for
the settlement near his farm; another was a telegraph operator; a
third was an expressman. Several had small business enterprises of
their own, a grocery or butcher shop; one was a blacksmith; another,
a cobbler. Many of the mothers worked in the fields along with the
fathers and children to save the expense of hired help.
T a b l e I I .— F arm tenure o f fa m ilies1 with w orking children under 16 years o f age, by

total acreage in fa rm .

Farm families with working children under 16 years of age.1
Total acreage.
Farm tenor©.

Total
Less than 50 acres.
Per eent
Per cent
Number. distri Number. distri
bution.
bution.

100
50 acres,
less than acres and
over.2
lOO.2

Not re
ported.2

Total...................; .............

145

100.0

Owner..........................................

104
4
25
1Ö
8
2
2

71.7
2.8
17.2
6.9
5.5
1.4
1.4

68
2
21
3
3

70.8
2.1
21.9
3.1
3.1

19
2
4
5
5

2.1

2
2

1 Includes only families that own or rent farms.
2 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50

The farmers whose children work on the farms live usually in small
two-story frame houses, well built and well kept, but with none of
the equipment that makes for comfortable living. Most of the fam
ilies visited had no household conveniences except a pump inside the
house; even a rudely improvised pump box to take the place of a
sink was not common. While the majority were supplied with water

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

from a drilled well, many had to depend upon dug wells, and several
families had only open springs. Few had any toilet accommodations
other than an outside privy. Some of the households were seriously
overcrowded; 15, or 10.3 per cent of the 145 farm owners’ and ten
ants’ households, had two or more persons per room, about the same
proportion of families suffering from that degree o f overcrowding as
was found among white farm families included in Children’s Bureau
surveys of child workers on truck farms both in the peninsula
counties of Maryland, where the farming population is chiefly native,
and in Anne Arundel County, Md., where the composition of the
farming population is more nearly like that in the New Jersey areas
included in the present study.2
The local labor supply, like the smaller farm operators in the
vicinity, is largely foreign born. Thus, of the 37 families in the study
who lived on farms where the father was a hired hand, 18 were of
foreign birth, 15 being Italian. Although the majority o f the fathers
in the 61 other families whose children were hired for farm work were
native, the fathers in 22 of the families were o f foreign birth. These
men were not necessarily farm laborers themselves, though their
children were; only 35, for instance, were engaged in any kind of
agricultural pursuit. Some of those living in the pine woods of
Burlington County made their living b y cutting down wood or gath
ering moss from the swamps to send to city florists. Among those
doing other kinds of work were tailors, carpenters, mill workers, and
laborers of one kind or another. In one or two communities the
fathers of the children who went out to the farms to work were
employed in a leather mill, a sawmill, a brickyard, or a foundry;
others worked on the public highways or at railroad terminals.
Sometimes the women in these and the farm laborers’ families con
tributed to the family income by doing farm work, or less often by
taking in sewing, keeping boarders or lodgers, or doing laundry work;
and some who lived in the vicinity of the cranberry bogs earned a
considerable amount during the harvesting season b y sorting cran
berries in a packing house. A few worked in the cannery or in the
“ washhouse” 3 on one very large farm. Altogether 43 of the 98
mothers whose children hired out for farm work were wage earners
themselves.
Except for a small group on one of the largest farms, the regular
farm hands whose families lived with them on farms occupied houses
not very different in size and household conveniences from those of
the farmer whose children worked in the fields. Although the resi
dent farm laborers’ families suffered somewhat more from room con2Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, Children’s Bureau Publication No. 123, pp. 7,37. Washington,
1923.
2Washhouse- a shed where vegetables are washed before being shipped to canneries or markets.

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W O R K OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND SMALL-FRUIT FARMS.

gestion than did the farmers’ families, 10 of the 37 being crowded
to the extent of two or more persons per room, most of this over
crowding was found among the families of laborers or foremen
living on one farm, 7 out of 16 of these families having two or more
persons per room. On the other hand, it was this group of resident
laborers who enjoyed more household conveniences than any other
and more than the farmers’ families included in the study, their
cottages being provided with running water, sinks, and in some cases,
electric lights.
Most of the families whose children go out to the farms to work by
the day live in little settlements clustered around a church or a school
and a small store or two. Most of these settlements are within easy
reach of a railroad or trolley, and a trip to one of the larger towns is
not a difficult nor an expensive matter. Of 61 families living in rural
settlements whose children were included in the study only 5 were
living in houses in which there were two or more persons per room.
As might be expected in such a thickly populated region, even the
farmhouses are comparatively close together, so that there are none
of the problems arising from isolation that exist in many farming
communities. About one-third of the local families interviewed had
automobiles and could get around freely, few of the farms except
those in the pine woods of Burlington County being far from im
proved highways. The majority of the families, slightly over twothirds, lived less than 4 miles from town.

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T H E C H IL D R E N ’ S W O R K .

Children living on farms in the truck-growing districts included in
the survey do much the same kind of work whether they belong to
families of landowners, tenants, or laborers. In addition to their
work in the harvesting season when all hands are pressed into service
they help with much of the general farm work that has to be done in
preparation for planting or in the course of cultivation, and also
with the harvesting of such crops as are grown only in small quanti
ties. The children who come out to work by the day, on the other
hand, are, as a rule, called upon to assist only during “ rush” periods
in the harvesting of large or perishable crops and at planting time
when it is desirable to get the crops in while the weather is favorable.
In the 243 local families interviewed were 445 children who had
worked on truck farms during the preceding year, 345 of whom
lived on farms, and 100 of whom came from near-by settlements.
Of the children living on farms all except 67 were the children of
farm owners or tenants. The workers ranged in age from 5 to 15
years, 76 per cent of the group being under 14 and 20 per cent less
than 10 years of age. It might be expected that children going
away from home to the farms for work by the day would average
older than the farm children, but there was practically no difference
between the groups in this respect— 21 per cent of the former as
compared with 19 per cent of the latter were under 10 years of age.
Although almost half the workers were girls, there were considerably
more boys than girls among the children under 10. Many of the
older children had worked in the fields a number of years. Thirtythree of the 106 children who were 14 or more years of age when
interviewed had started field work before they were 10 years of age
and 53 before they were 12.
T a b l e I I I . — A ge o f resident children at beginning field w ork, by age A u gu st 31, 1921.
Working children under 16 years of age in resident families.
Age at beginning field work.

Age Aug. 81,1921.
Total.

years, 12 years, 14 years
Under 6 years, 7 years, 8 years, 9 years, 10under
Not re
under
and
6 years. under 7. under 8. under 9. under
10.
12.
14.
over. ported.
U
©
A© rQ
©
U
©
pH £

s
&
Total...........

* 445

Under 10 years. . .
10 years, under 11.
11 years, under 12.
12 years Junder 13.

89
49
53
78
69
58
48

14 years j under 15.
15 years, under 16.

S
©
© a
U
© 3
Ah £

4-3

8
©
Ph

4-3

3
3

(li

4-3
d

<3
rO

3
£5

"S
s
u
©

9 2.0

29 6.5

55 12.4

65 14.6

77 17.3 109 24.5

24 27.0
2

21 23.6
7
3 5.7
10 12.8
6 8.7
2 3.4

26 29.2
8
7 13.2
6.4
7 10.1
8 13.8
4

11 12.4
22
16 30.2

1 1.3
2 3.4

1 1.4
2 3.4

1 Not shown where base is less than 50.

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8 10. 3

11 15.9
5 8.6
4

7
20 37.7
43 55.1
19 27.5
10 17.2
10

S
-4
©

4-3
d

62 13.0

7 9.0
19 27.5
23 39.7
13

¿4
©
rO

d
s-

4-»
d
©
©
U*
©
Ah

10 2.2 2 29 6.5

3 5.2
7 ....

* Includes 1 child for whom age was not reported.
7

2 2 .2
2
7 13.2
4 5.1
6 8.7
3 5.2

WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

Kinds of work.
General farm work.—Plowing, harrowing, cultivating, weeding,
hoeing, and thinning are the most common kinds of general farm
work which children in the communities studied had done. With
the exception of cultivating, weeding, and hoeing, this work was
confined almost entirely to children living on farms. Plowing is
probably the most difficult of the operations reported. Two types
of plow— one having a seat for the driver, the other necessitating the
driver’s walking— were in use, but with either type of machine the
work is too difficult for most children. When the driver walks,
considerable strength is necessary to hold the plow in line in order to
cut a straight furrow. In operating the other type of plow, strength
is likewise necessary to manipulate the levers that lift the plow from
the ground and regulate the depth of cutting. Moreover, as the ma
chine is built for an adult, a child, unless he is very large, has to strain
to reach the lover. A light-weight child is in danger of being jolted
from the seat and injured, especially if Idle ground is rough, such an
accident being particularly to be feared with disk plows, as there is
the possibility that if thrown the child will fall in the way of the
moving disks. O f the 345 farm children, 14 per cent, including
2 girls, had plowed during the year covered b y the study. Almost
half the workers were under 14 years o f age, including 3 small boys

of 11.
Harrowing, which is not so difficult as plowing, is more tedious and
very fatiguing. Both disk and spike harrows were in common use
in the area included in the survey. The spike harrow has no seat
and, unless some arrangement for seating the driver is provided, as is
sometimes done, the driver is obliged to follow along on foot. After
a few hours continuous walking in the loosened soil becomes extremely
wearisome, and workers suffer from aching feet and ankles. In disk
harrowing there is less discomfort because the machine has a seat for
the driver, but it involves the same danger for light-weight children
as disk plowing. Ten per cent of the children (one of whom was a
girl), had harrowed; about half of them were under 14 years of age.
More children had done cultivating than liad plowed or harrowed,
as might perhaps b e expected from the fact that it is lighter work.
It was not confined, as was most of the general farm work, to children
who lived on farms, for 10 of the 100 children going out to the farms
to work by the day reported that they had done cultivating. Of the
farm children 19 per cent, including 5 girls, had cultivated. While
the work is comparatively light, it requires care and intelligence and
is therefore seldom done b y very young children, though almost
three-fifths of the workers reporting it were under 14 years of age.
It is done for the most part with a horse-drawn machine, though a

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IF SOUTHERN F E W JERSEY.

small hand machine which is pushed along the row in front of the
worker is sometimes used.
T a b l e I V .— K in d s o f field w ork done by children in fa rm fa m ilies, by age.

Children under 16 years of age doing each specified kind of field
work.
Kind of field work.

Total................................................

10 years,
12 years,
14 years,
under 12.
under 14.
under 16.
Un
8
der years,
8 under
Num Per years1 10.1 Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent.
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
Total.

345 100.0

General:
P low ing................................. ...........
48
Harrowing..........................................
34
Cultivating..........................................i 64
Weeding.............................................. 150
Hoeing................................................. 163
Thinning.............................................
34
Planting..................................................... 135
Transplanting2......................................... 122
Dropping *.................................................
166
Harvesting:
Gathering potatoes, sweet potatoes,
beets, turnips, onions..................... 195
Cutting'asparagus,lettuce, rhubarb,
spinach, kale, cabbages, watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins,
or other crops..................................
98
Pulling beets, carrots, onions,
radishes, turnips, or other crops...
53
Husking..............................................
54
Sorting or bunching...........................
44
Shocking............... ............................
39
Carrying baskets, hampers, etc.........
29
Other:
Driving or hauling.............................
20
loading............... ...............................
7
Other truck work...........................
122
Other field work.................................
39

78 100.0

115 100.0

100.0

13.9
9.9
18.6
43.5
47.2
9.9
39.1
35.4
48.1

1
8
4
1
4
4
16

4
16
13
2
14
11
20

7
32
34
8
24
18
45

9.0
41.0
43.6
10.3
30.8
23.1
57.7

23 20.0
46 40.0
60 52.2
12 10.4
46 « . 0
37 32.2
53 46.1

29
48
52
11
47
52
32

34.5
57.1
61.9
13.1
56.0
61.9
38.1

56.5

60.3

60.9

53.6

28.4

29.5

27.8

35.7

15.4
15.7 i
12.8
11.3
8.4

3
2
2

3
4
4

17.4
19.1
12.2
17 4
9.6

19.0
22.6
17.9

20
22
14
20

16
19
15

11 14.1
7
9.0
9 11.5
5 < 6.4
5
6.4

13.1

Q6
17

33! 0

44
14

5.8
2.0
35.4
11.3

10
2

2.6

21
5

26.9
6.4

11
2
38
18

15.7

52.4
16.7

’ Per cent not shown where base is less than 50.
1Includes ’“ setting out.”
includes children who, in connection with the planting or transplanting o f any erop, did dropping
only, though the same children may have both dropped and set out in transplanting some other erop.

Hoeing and weeding, more commonly than other kinds of general
farm work, were done b y children of all groups and all ages. About
15 per cent of the village and 45 per cent of the farm children had
weeded or hoed. Among the farm children doing the work were
almost as many girls as boys, but the group of children going out to
the farms for the work of weeding or hoeing included more boys
than girls. Although less strain is involved in weeding and hoeing
than in the machine operations, either task, if done for any length
of time, becomes extremely fatiguing, as the muscles of the back
grow tired and stiff from the continual bending. Moreover, the
work has to be done at a time of year when the heat is often intense,
adding much to the discomfort of the worker.
Thinning, or pulling out superfluous plants, is, perhaps, no harder
than weeding, but like cultivating it requires more mature judgment
to determine which plants shall be left, and can be intrusted only

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

to older children. Ten per cent of the farm children and 5 per cent
of those going out for day’s work reported that they had thinned.
Planting and transplanting.— Two hundred and eighty, or 63 per
cent of the working children, had helped in some way with planting
or transplanting, a very much larger proportion of the children living
on farms than of the other children reporting the work. “ Drop
ping” is the particular part of planting or transplanting which falls
to the lot of most o f the children. It consists merely of dropping
seed into open furrows or hills, or, in the case of transplanting, drop
ping seedling plants at regular intervals along the rows in a field
ready for the “ setter,” who follows and does the actual planting.
The transplanting of many truck crops— cabbage, strawberries,
tomatoes, peppers, and sweet potatoes— is done in this way. Setting
was also done by the children but not so commonly as dropping.
About 50 per cent of the farm children helped with dropping while
only 35 per cent did setting; as compared with 15 per cent and 17
per cent, respectively, of the day workers. Setting is more difficult
work and requires more care and intelligence than dropping, which
can readily be learned by young children, as is evidenced by the fact
that one child 5 years of age and four 6-year-old children had done
it. Most of the children who set were at least 12 years of age. The
planting of most of the crops which children had worked on in any
considerable numbers— peas, beans, corn, cucumbers, and potatoes—
was usually done by hand. So also was the planting of onions. It
should be mentioned in passing that, although few of the children
included in the study (only 18) had been employed in setting out
onions, this work is particularly undesirable work for them. They
crawl along on their hands and knees pressing the bulbs into the
softened soil, and, as the work is sometimes begun as early as the
latter part of February when the ground is still cold and damp, they
run considerable risk of illness.
Some farmers use a transplanting machine 1 for sweet potatoes,
peppers, tomatoes, and occasionally for strawberries. It does the
work more speedily and efficiently than when the work is done by
hand, but is expensive, and comparatively few of the families
included in the study could afford it. Thus, only 18 boys and 9 girls
reported transplanting by machine. In cases where the machine
was used, however, children were generally employed on it, their
work being known as “ feeding.” This is a disagreeable job requiring
skill and alertness. The “ feeders” — two to a machine— sit on small
seats only slightly raised from the ground with their legs stretched
out in front of them, and as the machine moves along they alternate
in dropping plants into a furrow at intervals indicated by a spacer*
i Sweet Potato Growing. Farmers’ Bulletin 999, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 19. Washington,
1919.

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

In order to keep pace with the machine the feeder must act quickly
and keep his attention riveted upon the work. Children who had
worked on these machines complained of becoming tired and cramped,
as there is no way of changing their position. They sit so close to
the ground, also, that on dry days they work in a continual cloud of
dust stirred up by the machine in its progress across the field.
T a b l e V . — K in d s o f field w ork done by children w orking as rural day laborers, by age.

Children under 16 years of age doing each specified kind of
field work.
Kind of field work.
Under
8 years.
Total...................................................
General:
Harrowing....................... . .................. .
Cultivating............................................
Weeding....... .........................................
Hoeing...................... . ............................
Thinning................................................
Planting......... .............................................
Transplanting8........................................... .
Dropping®...................................................
Harvesting:
Gathering potatoes, sweet potatoes,
beets, turnips, onions.........................
Cutting asparagus, lettuce, rhubarb,
spinach, kale, cabbages, watermel
ons, cantaloupes, pumpkins, or
other crops..........................................
Pulling beets, carrots, onions, radishes,
turnips, or other crops......................
Husking.......................... .......................
Sorting or bunching.................. ...... . . .
Shocking................................................
Carrying baskets, hampers, ete............
Other:
Driving or hauling............................
Other truck work............................ ...
Other field work............................... ...

1 100

1
10
17
14
5
11
17
115

8 years, 10 years, 12 years, 14 years,
under 10. under 12. under 14. under 16.
15

2
3
4
1
4
3
3

1
6
9
7
2
4
10
6

2
5
3
2
2
4
3

1
7
2
2
5
2
24
5

1
3
2
1
4
1
6
4

3
1
1
1
8
1

1 Includes 1 child for whom age was not reported.
2 Includes “ setting out.”
8 Includes children who in connection with the planting or transplanting of any crop did dropping only,
though the same children may have both dropped and set out in transplanting some other crop.

Harvesting.— Of all work on the farm harvesting is most generally
done by the children. Comparatively few do work involving the use
of machines, and not all are required to help with planting or even
with the lighter work of weeding and hoeing, but practically every
child “ picks.” Among the 445 local children included in the study
only 29 had not helped in gathering one crop or another, the specific
crop that they worked upon depending upon the degree of skfil and
amount of strength necessary for the work. Girls and younger
children are less likely than older boys to pick tomatoes or gather
potatoes, for example. The harvesting of a great variety of fruits
and vegetables was reported, but the most important, from the
standpoint of numbers of children engaged, were peppers, potatoes,
strawberries, beans and peas, tomatoes, and cranberries.
58662°— 24------3

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WORK

OF CHILDREN O N TRUCK A N D

The strawberry crop is the first of the season to be harvested.
Forty-five per cent of the children included in the study reported
strawberry picking as part of their work. If the berries are plentiful
the worker can sit or kneel on the ground and pick for a considerable
time without changing his position, but if they are scarce sitting is
not worth while, and the picker walks down the rows continually
bending over low-growing plants. As the berries must reach their
market as soon as possible, picking must cease in time for them to
be taken to the train for shipment on the same day, a circumstance
which often shortens the possible working day by several hours; but
as the crop must be harvested before it spoils the shorter hours may
mean more speeding up and hence more fatiguing work than a longer
day might represent.
Picking beans and peas, in which 38 per cent of the children had
engaged, is much the same sort of work as picking strawberries,
though somewhat easier because the plants are higher and also
because the worker can pick longer without changing his position.
The five-eighths bushel baskets which are used are comparatively light,
even when filled, and children carry them with no difficulty. More
over, since heat shrivels the pods, both beans and peas are picked,
as a rule, in the morning or late in the afternoon, affording a break
in the long hours and allowing a rest during the most trying part of
the day.
More than one-half the children reported picking peppers. This
work is simple, except that care must be taken not to pull the center
out as the fruit is pulled from the vine, and is easily learned b y even
the younger children. Although the picker is unable to sit at his
work, since he moves as quickly from plant to plant as he can pick
the fruit, he is not obliged to hurry as when working on more
perishable crops. The hampers, commonly used in picking, hold
five-eighths of a bushel, and when full probably weigh only about 16
pounds.
The hardest work that children have to do during the harvest
season is probably tomato picking. The worker does not sit down,
as the fruit is scattered, and as the vines are weighted to the ground
continual bending over is necessary. The greatest hardship involved
in the work, however, is the weight of the baskets. The five-eighths
bushel hampers when full of tomatoes weigh around 40 pounds.
They have to be lifted, carried a few steps, and set down again many
times during the day, and the strain appears to tax the strength of
some of the children. “ They are so heavy you just have to drop
them sometimes,” said one boy. Even women sometimes complain
that after a day of lifting tomatoes onto a wagon they are completely
exhausted. Thirty-five per cent of the children included in the
study had taken part in tomato picking during the year.

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN- NEW JERSEY.

Tr> picking up potatoes or sweet potatoes, which was reported by
201 of the children, the worker crawls along the ground or walks
stooping over, rubbing the dirt from the potatoes as he picks them
up. Sweet potatoes have to be broken from the vines, but Irish
potatoes loosen at a touch. If they are not to be sorted at once
they are thrown into hampers, carried to the edge of the field, and
dumped into barrels. Carrying is the hardest part of the work, for
the full hampers weigh from 30 to 35 pounds.
As most of the work on cranberries2is done b y migratory workers,
a much smaller number of the children living in the section had helped
on this crop, only 86 of the 445 who had done any farm work. For
the most part these children belong to one of several colonies of
native families along the eastern shore o f the State in the pine woods
of Burlington County who make their living in the summer b y picking
wild huckleberries and cranberries and in the winter by chopping
wood and gathering moss from the swamps to be shipped to the
florists in the city. A few have small bogs of their own, but the
majority go ou t to work b y the day.
Aside from their work on truck crops a few children helped with
the corn crop ; 9 per cent of their number had shocked corn and 14
per cent had husked. It will be remembered that very little corn or
forage is produced in the section other than is needed for home con
sumption—-it is not uncommon for farmers to plant from 80 to 100
per cent of their cultivated land in truck crops.
T a b l e V I . — K in d s o f crops picked by resident children, by sex'.

Resident children under 16 years of age picking each
specified kind of-crop.

Number.:

Total-------------------- -----— --------------Beans and peas--------------- ------ ....... . Peppers...7...................................................
Tomatoes....... ................ - — --------------- ---Strawberries............................- ................... :
Cranberries___________ ____ i------ ---------- 4
Other *berries.~.............................*--------- :

445
169
‘229 1
1ST
198
86
70

Girls.

Boys.

Total.

Kind of crop picked.

Per cent
Per cent Ï
Percent
distri Number., distri Number. distri
bution.
bution.
bution.
lQO.iOj

.240

38.0:
51.5
35.3
44.51
19.3
15.7 ;

.97
124
98
108
40
40

100.0
40.4
51.7;
40. 8
45.0;
16.7
16.7

205

100.0

.72
105
59
90
46.
30

35.1
51.2
.28.8
43.9
22.4
14.6

Hours of work.
Varying as they do with the nature of the work to be done, weather
conditions, and shipping facilities, the hours of work are irregular.
Some tasks can be done at any time, others only in the cool of the day,
and still others have to wait until the morning is well advanced and
* See p. 35 for description of cranberry picking.

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

the dew off the ground. Perishable produce has to be harvested at
hours that allow for transportation to market before night; the work
ing day thus depends upon train service or, if delivery is made by
truck, upon the distance to market. Because of such irregularity an
effort to obtain information on daily hours of work for a period covering
even so much as a week proved impossible. A report was, however,
secured for a sample day, the last day of work previous to the visit
of the Children’s Bureau agent, for 378 of the 445 children. While
picking cranberries, peppers, beans, and tomatoes and gathering pota
toes was the work reported most often for this day, almost every kind
of work except the harvesting of early crops was represented, includ
ing plowing, weeding, thinning, hoeing, feeding a planter,3 husking
corn, and many other jobs. The hours of work, however, can be con
sidered representative only of the time of year in which the study was
made. Although one-third of the children reporting had worked less
than 6 hours, about the same number (34 per cent) had worked more
than 8 hours, and 17 per cent (64 children) had spent 10 hours or
more in the field. On the whole, it was the younger children who had
worked the shorter hours. Often, especially if their mothers were
working, they spent as much time in the field as their older brothers
and sisters, because they could not be left at home alone, but their
work was irregular and some of their time spent in play. Of the 64
children under 10 years of age for whom a report on hours could be
secured only 16 had worked 8 hours or more; all except 5 of these
were 9 years of age. On the other hand, about half of the 216 children
between 10 and 14 years of age and of the 97 children between 14 and
16 years of age had spent at least 8 hours at work in the fields. The
long working day was more customary for boys than for girls; more
than 50 per cent of the boys reporting had worked 8 hours or more
while only 25 per cent of the girls had done so. Short hours did not,
however, always mean that a child had had an easy day, for some of
the children were attending school and their work was in addition to
the hours spent in the schoolroom. Thus, one boy who had worked
in the field only 3^ hours, had begun work at 7 in the morning stopping
at 8.30 just in time for school and at the close of school had gone
directly to the fields again, working from 4 until 6 p. m. The sons and
daughters of landowners and tenants did not work so long a day as
either the children of farm laborers or those who went out to farms to
work by the day. About three-fifths of the laborers reporting had
worked 8 hours or more as compared with one-third of the children
whose fathers owned or rented the farms on which they worked.
The hour of beginning work in the morning was not a serious prob
lem as regards these children, if the sample day for which the report

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS I FT SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

on hours was made was typical of the year. Only 14 of the 364 chil
dren reporting the hour of beginning work had started before 7 a. m.
and a few more than two-thirds had not begun until 8 o ’clock or later.
The child labor law of the State of New Jersey exempts agricultural
pursuits from its provisions, but it is interesting to compare conditions
under which children work on New Jersey farms with the standards
set b y the law.4 The law prohibits children under 14 years of age
from working in any factory or mercantile establishment, restricts
the hours of work for children from 14 to 16 years of age in factories
or mercantile establishments to 8 in any one day, and forbids work
between 7 p. m. and 7. a. m. Almost three-fourths of the children
reporting work on the farms of the section studied were below the
age prescribed by the law as the minimum for factory and mercantile
work, and 34 per cent of the children for whom a report on hours
was obtained worked more than 8 hours a day.
T a b l e V I I . — H ours sp en t in fie ld work by resident children on a typical day, by age.

Working children under 16 years of age in resident families.

Total.

Under 10.

10 years,
under 12.

12 years,
under 14.

14 years,
under 16.

Hours of field work on typical day.
Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent
distri
distri
distri
distri
distri
ber.
ber.
ber.
ber.
ber.
bu
bu
bua
bu
bu
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
T o t a l . . . . . . . . . ......................

a 445

102

147

106

Reporting hours worked in field:
Total.................................
Less than 4 hours.......................
4 hours, less than 6...........
6 hours, less than 8.................
8 hours................................
Over 8 hours, less than 9 ...........
9 hours, less than 10...............
10 hours, less than 11.................
11 hours, less than 12................
Hours not reported...................

a 378

100.0

128

100.0

62
62
86
a 39
27
38
57
7

16.4
16.4
22.8
10.3
7.1
10.1
15.1
1.9

22
14
12
6
3
3
4

34.4
21.9
18.8
9.4
4.7
4.7
6.3

11
17
22
8
7
8
13
. 2

12.5
19.3
25.0
9.1
8.0
9.1
14.8
2.3

15
21
25
17
9
15
23
3

11.7
16.4
19.5
13.3
7.0
11.7
18.0
2.3

14
10
27
7
8
12
17
2

14.4
10.3
27.8
7.2
8.2
12.4
17.5
2.1

a Includes 1 child for whom age was not reported.

Duration of work.
The season on the truck farms is very long. Aside from general
work, the harvesting of one crop or another is fairly continuous from
the time of strawberry picking in May to the gathering of cran
berries before the November frosts. Five or six months’ work on
crops is not uncommon for children and a large proportion who
reported had worked at least three months. Information as to the
^Ompikod Statutes:
vol. 3, Labor, sec. 24, p. 3025, as amended by acts of 1919, ch. 36:
acts of 1911, ch. 30, sec. 2, as amended by acts of 1919, ch. 37.
’

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WORK

OF C H IL D R E N

TRUCK AND

number of days that they had worked was obtained for 314 of the
children included in the study. The work was irregular, and the
children or their parents remembered its duration by recalling how
much time they had spent on each crop and each operation; they
would say, for example, “ John helped three days transplanting
strawberries, and we all picked strawberries every day for two
weeks.” Table V III shows the length of time worked stated in
terms of months for those reporting the duration of their work.
For children under 10 years of age field work was not so important
a matter as for older children. But of those between 10 and 14 years
of age, a group which constituted about 50 per cent of the total
number, about two-fifths had worked three months (90 days) or
more and about one-tenth five months or more. Of the group 14
and 15 years of age, including about one-fourth of all the children,
nearly three-fifths had worked three months or more and over onefourth, five months or more.
Children living on farms had spent more days at work than had
children hiring out who did not live on farms, as was to be expected
from the fact that the children of farmers and farm laborers did a
greater variety of work. In each group girls worked shorter periods
than boys; of 150 who were able to report on the duration of their
work only 28 had worked four months or more, though 44 (29 per
cent) had worked at least 90 days or three months.
T a b l e V I I I .— A ge o f resident children who reported duration o f field w ork, hy duration

o f field w ork.1

Resident children under 16 years of age reporting duration of field work.
Age.
Total.

Total..............................

2314

6 years, under 6 ......................
6 years, under 7 ................... .
7 years, under 8 ......................
8 years, under 9 ......................
9 years, under 10.....................
10' years, under 11...................
11 years, under 12...................
12 years, under 13...................
13 years, under 14...................
14 years, under 15...................
15 years, under 16..................

1
8
14
16
30
26
35
54
47
46
36

Less
1
2
3
4
5
6
than
month, months, months, months, months, months
1
less than less than less than less than less than and
month.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
over.
268

4
7
4
12
9
3
13
7
5
3

1
2
6
7
6
5
13
13
8
7
3

1
4
5
5
7
10
10
7

3
4
3
6
7
9
8
4

1
1
1
1
2
6
7
2
7
6

29
1

1
1
1
5
3
4
4

2
1
1
2
8
5
9

1 Excludes 131 children for whom duration of field work was not reported.
2 Includes 1 child for whom age was not reported.

Earnings.
Half, 223, of the working children had received wages. In only a
very few instances were children paid by their parents for work on
the home farm, but some of the less prosperous or more thrifty

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S M A L L -F R U I T F A R M S I N

SOUTHERN

NEW

JE R S E Y .

parents in the farm-owning class took advantage of a chance to
obtain a little ready money by allowing their children to help on
other farms when they were not needed at home.
The rate of pay for laborers varies with the different crops and to
some extent with the individual farmer. A daily or hourly rate is
generally paid for all work other than harvesting. The amount
reported varied from 50 cents to $3, depending upon the size and
ability of the child worker, for a working day ranging from 8 to 11
hours. It seldom, however, exceeded $1.50 and when it did, the
working day was generally one of at least 10 hours.
Most harvesting is done on a piecework basis, the rates varying
with different crops. Remuneration for picking small fruits such as
blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries ranged at the time of the
study from 2 to 8 cents a quart, while peas and beans, which were
much easier to harvest, brought from 25 cents to 30 cents a bushel,
peppers from 10 to 15 cents a barrel, and tomatoes from 2J to 5 cents
a five-eighths bushel basket. The price for picking cranberries varied
from 15 to 30 cents a 12-quart measure, the most usual rate being
something over 18 cents. Corn was husked at the rate of 6 cents for
a five-eighths bushel basket and shocked at 5 cents a shock. Workers
were generally paid b y the day for picking up potatoes; when they
were paid b y the basket they received 2 cents for a five-eighths
bushel measure.
Because of the irregularity of their work and the fact that much
of it was on a piecework, basis, earnings could be ascertained for
only one day, the same for which a report on their working hours
was obtained. Of the 223 children who were paid for their work
only 107 could give account of their earnings on the sample day;
52 of these had been paid an hourly or a daily rate and 55 had been
on a piecework basis. Because of these variations the earnings have
been reduced for purposes of comparison to an hourly basis. The
amount most frequently received was from 10 to 15 cents an hour.
Fifty-nine of the 107 children had received from 5 to 15 cents, and
only 38 children had exceeded this amount. The earning capacity
o f the child was determined to a large extent by his age. Few
children under 10 years of age were able to give any account what
ever of their earnings, and most of them probably earned little or
nothing. In fact one farmer had come to the conclusion that these
workers were a hindrance rather than a profit and would not allow
them in the field. But at 10 years of age a child was usually counted
as a regular hand, if in the field at all, and his earnings considered
o f some importance. Of the 23 children ranging in age from 10 to 11
years who reported their earnings only 7 had earned 15 cents or
more an hour and almost half had received less than 10 cents. The
older children, those from 12 to 15 years of age, showed on thevwhole

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WORK OF CHILDREN OFT TRUCK AND

higher earnings. Of the 69 of this age group reporting, almost half had
made 15 cents or more an hour, 6 of them receiving 25 cents or more.
An effort was made to secure information in regard to the largest
amounts which the children had ever earned in a day. While
children reporting on this point were too few to permit of any general
conclusion, it is interesting to note that of 106 children reporting
two-fifths stated that they had a maximum daily earning of $1.50
or more and about three-fourths reported at least $1.
F A R M W O R K I N R E L A T IO N T O S C H O O L A T T E N D A N C E .

A considerable part of the work on truck farms has to be done in
the spring and fall at a time when the schools are in session, in spite
of the fact that school terms in some of the schools are very brief.
Many children drop out for work early in the spring and do not
return until late in the fall. The school record of three children, for
instance, in one farmer’s family included in the study is by no means
unique. Although their school opened September 30, two did
not enter until October 25 and the third not until October 28, 16
and 18 days late; early in the spring they dropped out again, the
oldest child 75 and the others 72 days before the close of the term.
One parent reported that three weeks before the close of the term
the school attended by her children had only 1 child in attendance
although it had an enrollment of about 25 pupils. The majority
were staying out to help on the farm. Not only do the children
staying away from school suffer a loss of instruction in such cases
as these, but those who wish to attend regularly are also handicapped
by the disorganized condition of the school.
■slnxml
Data as to the number of days which they had been absent during
the school year preceding the survey were secured from school rec
ords 5 for 377 of the working children, and information as to the
causes of absence was secured from the children’s families. A large
majority of the 377 children had lost from several days to four months
on account of farm work. Two-thirds of those living on farms
and one-half of those going out to the farms to work by the day
who reported concerning absences from school had been absent on
account of their work in the fields. Absences from all causes resulted
in almost one-third o f the children’s attending school less than 70
per cent, and half less than 80 per cent, of the term. One child in
every 10 had lost at least half the school term. Wh.en school terms
are short, as they were in some of the school districts where these
children lived, the loss of even a small part of the term is serious.
Only 50 per cent of the children attending school had received
instruction for as many as 140 days or seven school months, oev5All except 20 of the children included in the study were attending school.

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN NEW 'JERSEY.

enty-five children had attended less than 100 days and 23 less than
60 days. Children living on farms, especially the children of landowners or tenants, had received the least schooling. Although
unavoidable circumstances, such as illness and bad weather, cause
considerable absence among rural school children, the greatest
amount of absence for any one cause reported b y children included
in the study was due to field work, farmers’ children, as compared
with laborers’ , reporting more days’ absence and the largest pro
portion of their total absence as being due to this cause. Table X
shows the average number of days’ absence due to each of the three
chief causes for absence.
T a b l e I X .— A bsence fro m school o f resident children on account o f field w ork, by age.

Resident children between 6 and 16 years of age attending school.

Absence from school on account of
field work.

Under 12
years.

Total.

12 years,
under 14.

14 years,
under 16.

Per cent Num Per cent Num Per cent
cent
Num Per
distri
distri
distri
distri Num
ber. bution.
ber. bution.
ber. bution.
ber. bution.
99

144

180

423
Reporting on absence for field work..

321

100.0

129

100.0

116

100.0

No absence.....................................
Less than 10 days..........................
10 days, less than 20......................
20 daysj less than 30....k....... ......
30 daysj less than 40......................
40 days, less than 80......................
80 days and over...........................

121
58
46
35
20
31
10

37.7
18.1
14.3
10.9
6.2
9.7
3.1

56
.24
20
13
5
11

43.4
18.6
15.5
10.1
3.9
8.5

41
21
21
13
8
8
4

35.3
18.1
18.1
11.2
6.9
6.9
3.4

24
■13
5
9

31.6
17.1
6.6
11.8
9.2
15.8
7.9

102

12
6
23

T a b l e X .— A verage num ber o f days’ absence from school fo r each specified cause o f resi

dent w orking children under 16 years o f age, by work status o f fa m ily.
Average number of days’ absence from
school for specified cause.
Work status of family.
All
causes.

44.6
43.2
36.1

Farm
work.

19.9
9.1
8.4

Illness.

10.2
8.6
7.6

Weather
and
roads.
1.4
.&
.2

The result of irregular attendance is that many rural school chil
dren make such slow progress that they fail to complete the elemen
tary grades by the time thay have reached the end of the compulsoryschool age, and so never acquire the common-school education with
which the public-school system is supposed to equip every child;
or else they remain to receive a type of instruction so unfitted to
58662°— 24-------4

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

their years and physical development that they are inclined to waste
their time and to become the “ problems” of the schoolroom. The
fact that most of the absence for farm work is concentrated at the
most important parts of the school year— the beginning and the end
of the term— makes it even more disastrous than if it were scattered
in brief periods throughout the year as absence for other causes usu
ally is. A majority (56.8 per cent) of the children included in the
present study had not reached the grades considered normal for their
years 8 and 20.5 per cent were retarded 3 years or more. As practi
cally all the children had entered school at the age of 6 or 7, their
retardation can not be ascribed to a late start. There is little doubt
that irregular attendance, a large part of which was due to farm
work, was the primary factor in their slow progress.
T a b l e X I .— Progress in school o f resident w orking children between 8 and 16 years o f

age; by age.
Resident working children between 8 and 16 years of age attending school.

Total.
Progress in school.

8 years,
under 10.

lOyears,
under 12.

12 years,
under 14.

14 years,
under 16.

Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
cent
Per cent
Num Per
distri Num distri Num distri Num
distri Num distri
ber. bution.
ber. bution. ber. bution. ber. bution.
ber. bution.
Total,...................... 1 400

100.0

101

100.0

144

100.0

227
76
69
82
125
27
121

56.8
19.0
17.3
20.5
31.3
6.8
5.3

18
13
5

32.7
23.6
9.1

24
10
3

43.6
18.2
5.5

49
19
17
13
41
6
5

48.5
18.8
16.8
12.9
40.6
5.9
5.0

92
29
30
33
39
7
6

63.9
20.1
20.8
22.9
27.1
4.9
4.2

68
15
17
36
21
4
6

68.7
15.2
17.2
36.4
21.2
4.0
6.1

R etarded...,.....................
1 year........................'.
2 years........................
N orm al.. ..........................
Advanced.........................
Progress not reported___

i Includes 1 child for whom age was not reported.

The compulsory school attendance law of New Jersey7 does not
in any way excuse children under 14 from school for work on farms.
It requires every child between the ages of 7 and 16 to attend school
regularly during all the days and hours that the public schools are
in session in his school district, unless he is mentally or physically
incapacitated or has been granted an age and schooling certificate
permitting him to leave school for work. The enforcement of the
law is in the hands of local attendance officers appointed b y the
individual school districts, and experience has shown that where local
interests thus have an opportunity to assert themselves schoolattendance laws in rural districts are seldom well enforced. It is
«The age basis upon which retardation has been calculated is that adopted b y the United States Bureau
of Education. Children are expected to enter the first grade at the age of 6 or 7 years and to complete
one grade each year; a child is therefore considered retarded if he is 8 or oyer on entering the first grade,
9 or over on entering the second, etc.
i Acts of 1914, ch. 223, sec. 2, as amended by Acts of 1919, ch. 35.

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S M A U L -F R U IT F A R M S I N

SOUTH ERN N E W

JERSEY;

difficult for an attendance officer in a small community to enforce
the law, since the farmers who keep their children out of school to
work on the farms or who hire children for field work are known to
him personally and are in many cases his neighbors or friends. He
also sympathizes with the farmer’s often pressing need for help, and
because the children’s need for schooling is less obvious and less
urgent he dislikes to insist upon their regular attendance at school
during busy seasons on the farm. State or, at least, county super
vision, where the personal element is eliminated, is necessary to
insure effective enforcement.

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MIGRATORY LABORERS.
E N G A G IN G SE A S O N A L LA BO R .

More than half thé children working on the truck and fruit farms
of the areas included in the survey were children in the families of
migratory workers. Every spring, as soon as the strawberry season
begins— toward the latter part of April or the first of May—families
are brought out from the settlements o f the foreign born in Phila
delphia and Camden to New Jersey farms for seasonal work. The
practice of importing .workers began some 25 years ago and is now
a well-established custom. While the primary reason for it is, of
course, the scarcity of local workers, many farmers say that they
have come to prefer this kind of labor, because they are better able
to control the hours and conditions of work when the workers are
• housed on their premises.
If only one or two families are needed, or if the farmer wishes to
keep his laborers the entire season for work on various crops, he gen
erally secures them himself. Otherwise they are hired through Italian
agents who make a business of recruiting family labor for the farms
of this section. These agents are usually called “ padrones” by both
farmers and workers. The padrone is primarily a labor agent, but
in addition he secures transportation for the “ gang,” attends to the
shipping of their baggage, brings the workers to the farm, and usually
serves as “ row boss” or field overseer; he is also usually in general
charge of the camp where workers are housed. The padrones prefer
to furnish labor in gangs for work on specific crops, as it is to their
advantage to move from farm to farm and receive commission from
as many farmers as possible during the season.
Some padrones are self-appointed, and every spring ,as the straw
berry season draws near they make a canvass of the farms, offering
their services for recruiting labor. Many have built up a regular
trade and serve the same farmer from year to year. The large em
ployer, however, who requires many pickers usually prefer* to select
from among his own workers some one to serve as padrone.
The most usual method of paying the padrone is a specific amount
per capita for the pickers furnished, the amount depending upon the
age and ability of the worker; but some padrones are paid a contract
price for every bushel o f produce picked and make what profit they
can by engaging pickers at the lowest possible rate, a method which
23

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W O R K OF C H IL D R E N O N T R U C K A N D S M A L L -F R U I T F A R M S .

often makes for discontent among the workers. Padrones often also
demand a fee from the worker as well as a per capita sum from the
employer. It is difficult to ascertain just how prevalent this custom
is, but one farmer employing hundreds of workers said that he knew
his padrone was charging families from $1 to $5. Some of the families
also reported payment for their jobs; one father said that he had paid
the padrone $2, for what he did not know; another had paid $1 for
each adult and 50 cents for each working child in the family; another
$1 for every person over 8 years of age; and still another $2 for each
working member of the family. Padrones also make a profit on rail
road tickets. It is quite customary for them to buy books of trip
tickets at a reduction and charge the workers a regular single fare;
one farmer who hired more than 200 pickers said that his padrone
was requiring each worker to pay even more for his transportation
than the price of the regular ticket.
The organization of the group, which sometimes consists of as many
as 300 or 400 pickers, is not rigid. There is no contract between the
padrone and his workers and seldom between the farmer and the
padrone. The families are free to drop out when the work on an
individual farm is completed— to return home or to find work else
where. Some go out for only one crop and others migrate from sec
tion to section as one crop after another ripens. Often the whole
gang wiliyeturn to the city and reorganize between moves. Among
the migratory families interviewed in the course of the study only
one-fourth had worked on one farm, the rest having moved from
three to four times during the season. The history of the migrations
of one family from one district of southern New Jersey to another is
typical of many. In May they went to Rosenhayn, N. J., to pick
strawberries; they left there in June and went to Hammonton, N. J.,
to pick raspberries and blackberries. From there in September they
moved to Rockwood, N. J., to help with the cranberry harvest, return
ing to Philadelphia in October. They had repeated this progjfam for
at least three years.
Many of the workers return to the farms year after year. Among
the families included in the study were very few who had come out
for the first time, though the number would undoubtedly have been
larger had immigration not been so light for several years. Some had
been coming every summer for 10 years or more. One woman had
worked for the same farmer 20 years, bringing with her first her chil
dren and then her grandchildren.

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THE FAMILIES.
The seasonal labor going to the truck farms of southern New
Jersey is largely Italian. The fathers in all except 8 of the 254
migratory families included in the study were of Italian birth. Most
of them (220) came out from Philadelphia, but a few lived in Camden
or in one of the smaller towns of New Jersey. Few were of recent
immigration— about 62 per cent had been in the United States 15
years or more and only 3 per cent less than 5 years— but in one-fourth
of the families neither parent and in about 30 per cent of the families
in which both parents were living only one parent could speak Eng
lish. The fact that so many of the parents, especially of the mothers,
could not speak English and had practically no contact with Ameri
can ways made the long absences necessitated by migrations for
farm work particularly unfortunate for the children. The rate of
illiteracy in the families was also high, for in about half of them
neither parent could read and write and in another 28 per cent only
one parent could do so. About three-tenths were unskilled laborers,
most of them working on the railroad or in street cleaning; almost
an equal number were factory employees, mechanics, or artisans, or
laborers in the building trades; about one-tenth were small store
keepers, junk dealers or other small tradesmen, or janitors, cleaners,
watchmen for public buildings, or servants. In the remaining fami
lies, the head of the household had had no gainful occupation dur
ing the year other than farmwork.
The migratory families are usually ones in which the income is
very small, and, like those of many unskilled and semiskilled work
ers, some live on so narrow a margin that in case of an emergency it
is necessary for them to receive financial aid. Thus, of 623 Phila
delphia families in the present study,1 298 had been known to one
or more social agencies in that city, 150 having been registered in
1920 or 1921. One of the 298 families was receiving a pension from
the mothers’ assistance fund, and 2 others had applied; 224 had re
ceived hospital or dispensary care, or aid from the visiting nurses
association or other health organization; 17 had come in contact
with the juvenile court; 44 had come to the attention of the bureau
of compulsory education, which in some cases had given shoes or
1 Four hundred and three of these families were those represented in the study of School Records of
Philadelphia Children Migrating for Seasonal Work, the report of which is given on pp. 42-52.

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TitUCK AND

clothing in order that the children might attend school, or had
reported the family to a relief agency. One hundred and thirty-two
of the families had been registered with relief agencies, though not
necessarily receiving financial aid. The winter preceding the survey
(1920-21) was one of great industrial depression, it will be remem
bered, and many of the families had suffered from the resulting un
employment. More than one-half the chief breadwinners in the fami
lies studied had been out of work at the time the families had left
the city, and many had had nothing to do for from 5 to 10 months
during the previous year. The increase in the number of men among
the farm workers was said by one farmer to be marked.
A not inconsiderable part of the unemployment during the winter
months is voluntary, according to statements made by some of the
families as well as by Philadelphia social workers who come in con
tact with the city families from which seasonal farm labor is recruited;
many of the men habitually do no work, or only odd jobs, in the
winter, looking for support to earnings of the whole family on the
truck farms. Undoubtedly the fact that all the children can work
tempts some families to go out to the farms; 19 parents in the study
said that their reason for going to the country was that the children,
who were not allowed to work in the city, could help earn the family
living. When they return from the country in the fall, they often
pay their rent for the winter months, buy a supply of coal and
staple groceries, and depend upon their earnings from odd jobs or
upon what the mothers may make “ sewing pants or coats” — onefifth of the mothers in the families included ini the study were gain
fully employed— or upon the earnings of children old enough to leave
school for work, to supply other necessities until the spring crops
take the family out again to the farms. Some of the families, accord
ing to reports of the social organizations acquainted with them in
Philadelphia, live through the latter part of the iwinter on credit with
the understanding that they are going to the country as soon as the
season opens and upon their return will be able to pay their debts
if the season on the farm proves to be a poor one the f amily in such
cases is obliged to apply for assistance to one of the relief agencies.
Cases similar to that of the family who had spent $80 for food in
preparation for its sojourn in the country and had earned only $40
during the season were not uncommon.
While the reason for going to the farms was in most families an
economic one, some looked upon their stay in the country as a vaca
tion, some of the men even giving up regular work in the city to go
to the farms, and running the risk of a poor season as well as of not
being able to find work upon their return to the city. All were not
so fortunate as one father who each spring borrowed $50 from his
employer to take his family to the country, going back to work at

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN ^SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

his old job each fall when the picking season was over. A few go
to the truck farms because they hope getting out of the city will
benefit the health of some member of the family who is ill. In this
connection it is interesting to note that of 214 families known to
Philadelphia social agencies, 22 had one or more members in the
family with either active tuberculosis or a history of the disease.
One man had refused treatment because he was planning to go out
to the truck farms.
The following are accounts of some of the families of the migratory
workers who were registered with one or more of the social agencies
in Philadelphia. While a few, had applied for help although they
owned property and had no pressing need, most of the families had
reached the end of their resources. Some of them needed help
because of illness or unemployment, or because the father’s wages were
small and the family large; others were in difficulties because the
father had died or had deserted.. These families may be considered
fairly typical of the 214, one-third of the total number included in
the study, who had come in contact with one of the Philadelphia
social agencies. Such information as that found in the agency
records and contained in the accounts of the families given below
was not secured for the families that were not known to any of the
social organizations. Their economic background probably did not
differ widely from that of families who had found it necessary to
apply for financial or other help; for the fathers’ occupations were
similar, the amount of unemployment in both groups was great,
and a large majority ¡in each group said that they had come to the
country for work because they needed money. It is not possible
to say how applicable the story of truancy, of neglect and desertion,
or of other delinquency, given in the following accounts may be to
families who had never been registered with a social organization;
it is probable that the most flagrant of these cases were in those
families that had come to the attention of social agencies.
The group of families that were in need of help because of unem
ployment, low wages, or illness of the chief breadwinner or other
members of the family is well represented by the following examples:
A lam plighter’s fam ily in w hich there were six children under 16 years of age
were in the h abit of going out from Philadelphia for truck-farm work every summer.
T h ey usually left the city in A pril, returning sometimes as late as N ovem ber.

The'

year before the Children’s Bureau in qu iry the bureau of compulsory education had
found one of the girls working although she was still of compulsory school age.

She

had not been in school for tw o years and was considerably retarded as she had been
out early for berry picking every year w hen attending school.

T he father was fined.

A month later the bureau of compulsory education reported the fam ily to a relief
agency as the child was being kept out of school to work at hom e because four members
of the fam ily were ill. T h e relief agency found that the fam ily had a debt of $300
b u t that th ey expected to make enough in the country to pay it off.

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W O R K OF C H IL D R E N O N T R U C K A N D

A fam ily in w hich there were six children w ent out to the truck farms for the first
tim e in 1921, though th e y had gone to Delaware for work in vegetable canneries the
two preceding summers.

T h e father was a laborer at the n a v y yard, b u t had had no

work for six months and th e entire fam ily had gone to the country because they
“ had to have m o n e y .”

T h e children left P hiladelphia in M arch; th e y had entered

school the previous Decem ber, 57 days late.

A b ou t the m iddle of Septem ber, 1922,

a 4-year-old girl was taken ill w ith pneum onia, and th e mother w ith three children
returned to the city , the father and the three other children remaining in the country.
A few weeks later, the father having lost his job in the country and three of the children
having come down w ith typh oid fever, the fam ily applied to the organized charities
for help.

O n N ovem ber 11, how ever, the fam ily "was found in the country, cutting

beet tops. O n e of the girls had lost 118 days of school, the other 122 d ays, because
of their work on the truck farms.
A n Italian fam ily whose father and mother had been in the U n ited States 30 years
w ent from Philadelphia to N ew Jersey to work on a truck farm, because the father
was sick and had no job.
because of illness.

H e was a baker b y trade, b u t had been out of work 11 months

T h e mother had been “ sewing coats” at hom e for eight months

before she came to the country.

Four children from 8 to 14 years of age were picking

cranberries; th e oldest had picked for five seasons.

During the year previous to the

inquiry the fam ily had been referred b y the bureau of com pulsory education to a
relief agency because th e o n ly wage earner, A ngeline, a 15-year-old daughter who
had been working illeg ally for three years, had been sent back to school and the
father was ill.

Som e $300 was given the fam ily in relief.

W h en school closed A nge

line tried to get vacation work, and finally secured a good job in a garment factory.
T h e father also secured work at his trade in A tla n tic C ity.

Both the father and

A ngeline gave up their work to go to the country in A ugust, A ngeline because she
did n ot w ant to go back to school in the fall and planned to remain in the country
until she was 16.
T h e F fam ily in w hich there were five children under 14 w en t to Blackw ood, N . J.,
in M ay, 1921, to pick strawberries and to Pem berton, N . J ., in Septem ber to pick
cranberries, because there were “ too m an y children and no w ork .”

T h e father was

over 60 and not very strong; th e mother was lam e and unable to do m uch work.

daughter of 17, a perforator in a shoe factory, was the chief support of the fam ily,
and she had been out of work for tw o months during the year preceding the interview .
T he fam ily had been given assistance b y a missionary society in P hiladelphia from
January to March, 1914, because the father was out of work.

From January until

the last of March, 1915, relief was given b y the same society, the father h avin g been
'reported out of work since Christmas.

In March, 1919, the fam ily again sought relief,

this tim e from the R ed Cross, as their son who was their m ain support had enlisted.
T h e b o y returned hom e, h aving failed to pass th e physical exam ination for enlist
m ent.

I n M ay, 1920, the R ed Cross received a letter from the b o y , who had finally

been sent to cam p, asking that he be discharged as his father was d ependent on h im .
O n investigation it was found that the m other and children were in N ew Jersey picking
strawberries, where th e y together m ade.about $3 a d ay.

T h e b o y had been earning

$24 a w eek, half of w hich he had been givin g to th e fam ily. T h e father was earning
$15 a week. T h e b o y was discharged. In th e country where th e y had been a little
over a month w hen interviewed this fam ily of 10 lived in tw o rooms.

T h e mother

had been in th e U n ited States 25 years b u t could not speak English.
A widowed mother w ith tw o children under lfr and an older daughter, who was a
cashier in a drug store and th e chief support of the fam ily, had been going to the
truck farms a num ber of seasons.

T h e father had been a padrone, supervising a large

num ber of m en, and the fam ily had been b u yin g a $2,000 hoilfee w hen h e died in 1916.

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

A ccording to the records of a relief society to w hich the fam ily was reported b y the
school w hich the children attended, all the debts of the fam ily, including funeral
expenses for the father, had been paid off b y m oney w hich th e y had earned from
berry picking, and th ey had some m oney left.

T h e father’s em ployer gave the father’s

job to th e mother and the fam ily continued to go to th e country for work on the farms.
A few months after th e father’s death, one of the children d ied and the fam ily owed
$65 on the funeral b u t reported to the relief agency that th e y expected to p ay off
the d eb t from the proceeds of their berry picking.

T h at same summer the fam ily

had to return from the country because one of the children h ad typh oid fever.

They

returned to the country in the fall, however, for cranberry picking and though they
were livin g on credit to some exten t, th ey reported that th e y expected to m ake enough
in the country to p a y off most of their debts, which amounted to $350.
mother still held her job as padrone.

I n 1921 the

A n Italian who had been in the U n ited States over 30 years was bottler in a brewery.
H e had had no work for nine months of the year preceding the Children’s Bureau
inquiry.

A 15-year-old son, Joe, who had worked in a silk m ill for nine months

prior to com ing to th e country, had been the fam ily’s chief support, he being the oldest
of seven children.

T h e y had come to the country because no one had a job except

Joe, and th ey needed m oney.

W h ile in the country the father worked on the roads

on a large, corporation-owned farm and the mother and three of the children did farm
work. Joe and the 13-year-old son also worked in the “ canning house ” for a tim e.
Im m ediately upon their return to the city Joe was taken ill w ith pneum onia and was
given care b y a visiting nurses’ association.

In 1922 the father was reported as still

out of work, and the children were furnished w ith clothing for school b y the bureau of
compulsory education.
T h e driver of an ash wagon, w ho had been em ployed steadily during the year of th e \
inquiry, “ couldn’t m ake enough to keep the fam ily, ” so th e parents and three children
w ent to Moorestown, N . J ., in M ay, 1921, and to V incentow n, N . J ., in August for work ‘
on the truck farms. T h e fam ily had been going out for farm work for five years or more,
and in 1916 had been fined because one of the children did not reenter school on their
return from the country in D ecem ber.

In 1916 the fam ily applied to a relief society,

as there were eigh t children, the mother was pregnant, and the father was earning on ly
$9 a w eek.

I n 1917 th e fam ily again applied for h elp , as the father was earning only

$14 a w eek, the mother was ill, and there were nine children under working age.
T h e house was said b y the visitor for the relief agency to b e clean and fairly comfortably
furnished and th e children w ell dressed.

N o relief was given inasmuch as it was

contrary to the policy of the organization to supplem ent the wages of able-bodied
men.
A naturalized Italian and ex-soldier who had applied to the R ed Cross for help in
establishing a disability claim , had been out of work for three months during the
year previous to th e interview w ith the fam ily.

A t the tim e of the interview , in Sep-

tem ber, 1921, he was em ployed w ith a phonograph com pany, b u t the fam ily had found
it hard to get along on his wages— th e y needed coal and clothes for the children—
so the mother and three children, aged 7 ,1 0 , and 11, had come to N ew Jersey to pick
cranberries. A ll the children worked, b u t the mother said that she told T o n y , the
7-year-old, that w hen “ he picked a peck he m ight stop for the d ay. ’ ’
T h e S fam ily, in w hich neither father nor mother could speak E nglish, though they
had been in th e U nited States 23 yearn, had been going out to the truck farms for a
num ber of seasons.

In 1915 the fam ily had applied to a relief agency for assistance,

as the father was earning on ly $5 a w eek as a laborer, and an older daughte'r, who had
given up her job to go berry picking, had been unable to find work on her return from

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WORK OF CHILDREN OK TRUCK A N D

30
the country.

W h en seen in the country b y the Children’s Bureau agent in 1921 the

father had been out of work for a number of months, and the mother had been helping
to support the fam ily b y peddling greens. T h e y had come to N ew Jersey to shock com
instead of “ going to tom atoes,” as th ey usually d id , because their former employers
“ could get p len ty men so w on’t take ch ild ren .”

T h e parents said that the children

“ got left down in their grades” because th ey came to the country to work.

The desertion of the father seemed to be the chief factor in the
economic difficulties 'of these two f amiles:
In one fam ily in w hich there were four children under 16 the mother was separated
from the stepfather, who drank and was abusive.

A lthough not very strong, she

supported the fam ily b y farm work and b y finishing coats at hom e.

T h e fam ily

had been going out to N ew Jersey for berry picking for several seasons, and before that
had gone out for work in a N ew Jersey cannery.

T h e 13-year-old boy had not gone

w ith the fam ily to pick raspberries in th e spring of 1921, as he was graduating from the
eighth grade.

H e had intended to go to high school, b u t had stayed in the country

so long in the fa ll, missing some six weeks of school, that he thought he would have to
go to a business college instead of high school.

T h e fam ily had received a w eekly

pension from a relief agency for a year or so after the death of the wom an’s first husband
four years before the bureau agent’s interview w ith her, and in the fall of 1921 the
fam ily again applied for aid, saying that work was slack and that the mother was
m aking on ly $7 a week sewing coats.

She reported that the fam ily had m ade about

$150 th e previous s u m m e r -tw o children and the mother working— picking raspberries
and cranberries; and w ith this sum she wished to b u y her second husband’s equ ity in
the house w hich th e y were bu yin g.

T h e last report was that the mother was livin g

with the stepfather u n til th ey could come to some agreement about the house.
wished a t th at tim e to sell it and return to her people in Ita ly .

She

T h e fam ily had been

registered w ith 10 social agencies in Philadelphia.
A father, mother, and three children had gone to N ew Jersey from Philadelphia
because the father was out of work and the fam ily could help earnja livin g in the coun
try.

T h e y regularly left the city to p ick strawberries and cranberries.

T h e father,

a laborer, who had been unem ployed eight months during the year preceding the
interview, had tw ice deserted the fam ily.

H e enlisted in the A rm y as a single man

on one occasion, and the fam ily had received aid from the R ed Cross and other organi
zations.

T h e mother said, ‘ ‘ Schools are always hollerin ’ for children to come to school.

W e ’d like to send them , b u t we can’t unless we have m oney to b u y food to eat and
shoes to wear.

W h en we go hom e and b u y coal for the winter, we w on’t have any

m oney le f t .”

In some of the families, delinquency on the part of the chief
breadwinner or of one of the children had brought the family to the
attention of the agency.
A fam ily consisting at the tim e of the Children’s Bureau interview of the mother
and two children had been going to truck farms for a num ber of years.
had been in the U nited States 23 years, b u t spoke no English.

T he mother

She supported her

fam ily b y taking in washings when she could get such work to do and had brought
her children to the country because she needed work.

W h ile there she sorted beans

in a cannery for three weeks in addition to her work in the fields.

T h e fam ily had been

known to social agencies in Philadelphia for a num ber of years.

T h e father had been

a heavy drinker, brutal to his wife and children; and the hom e was reported as ,“ im
possible” b y a relief agency, the fam ily being in the habit of sleeping on the floor
and never having a decent m eal.

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One of the older sons had been sent to an institution

SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN HEW JERSEY.
for delinquents, and the other had been before the ju ven ile court.

I n 1918 im m ediately

following the death of the father the fam ily was reported to a relief agency as in
need and given help. In 1920 the mother had applied fora m other’s pension, b u t her
application had been rejected.
T h e J fam ily, in w hich four children worked in the cranberry bogs, came out to
pick berries because the father, a laborer in the n a v y yard, had been out of work for
seven months.

This fam ily had a long record w ith a relief agency and the juvenile

court in P hiladelphia.

In 1909, w hen the fam ily had been in the U nited States only

a few years, one of the children was found on the streets playing an accordion and
begging.

Investigation disclosed the fact that the father was buying the house in

w hich th ey liv e d and renting out all excep t two rooms. The fam ily lived in the
winter on what th e y m ade on the truck farms in the summer.
In 1917 the fam ily was reported to the relief agency as in need, the mother saying
that the father gave her on ly 25 cents a day for food.

I t was found that the fam ily

was receiving $38 from rent of rooms and the father sold oysters in the basement of
the house.

Neighbors said that the father gave the fa m ily very little food and that

the mother secured w hat she could from garbage pails. The case was turned over to
the housing com m ittee because of the housing conditions.
In that same year the bureau of compulsory education furnished the children with
clothes for school, the father being reported as out of work.

In 1918 the 10-year-old

boy. was arrested for p la y in g an accordion and begging on the streets.

H e was placed

on probation, but on two occasions, in 1920 and 1921, was again found p laying on the
streets “ because his mother sent h im . ”

A great deal of trouble between the mother

and father over m oney matters was reported.

T h e bo y was placed on probation and

a few weeks later went to the country w ith the fa m ily to p ick strawberries.
The widowed mother of two boys under 16 years of age ,supported her fam ily £ y
farm work.

Im m ed iately after the death of the father, who had been a tailor, the

fam ily had been given assistance b y a relief agen cy u n til “ th ey went to the country
and could not be found a g a in .”

E arly in the year in w hich the Children’s Bureau

stu d y was made the mother had applied to another charitable organization for help
and had been sent some coal w hich the mother had returned because, she said, it was
“ too l i t t le .”

Later in the same year one of the boys was reported as a truant, and a

truancy petition was filed for h im .
and d id not appear in court.

H e went to the country, however, w ith bis mother

Tw o months later the fa m ily was back in the city and

one o f the boys was arrested for stealing shoes.' H e said that he was w illing to work
on a farm and was allowed to go to the country in the early autum n w ith the fam ily.
The N fam ily consisted of the mother and five children under 16.

Three years

before the in q u iry the father had died of concussion of the brain following an accident.
H e had been a laborer earning $25 a w eek, and the fa m ily received compensation of
$12.

T h e mother was said b y a relief agency to be continually begging and sending

children to the church for h elp , while refusing to do an y work herself.
children was feeble-m inded and another had a tubercular h ip .

One of the

E v e ry summer

the fa m ily w ent out to work on the truck farms, reporting that th e y had earned in
1917 $100, in 1918 $100, and in 1919 $35.
aged 14, worked at various jobs illeg a lly .

During 1921 Jennie, a feeble-m inded girl
On October 10, 1921, the relief agency

reported that the fa m ily had just returned from the country, that Jennie, then 15, was
working in a laundry a t $10 a w eek, and that compensation for the father’s accident
had been reduced to $11.

A few of the families had applied to an agency for assistance when
there was apparently no actual need.

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND SMALL-FRUIT FARMS.

T he mother and two children in a fam ily in w hich the father had fairly stead y work
as a laborer and the mother sold fru it w en t to the country every year. Several years
before th e y were interview ed in N ew Jersey the 10-year-old girl had sent letters to a
newspaper asking for Christmas toys and had tw ice been found begging on the street
for clothes.

Investigation had shown that the fa m ily was not in need, as the father

owned two buildings valu ed at $3,400 and the parents were self-supporting.

During

the year covered b y the Children’s Bureau in q u iry the mother had asked the relief
agency for assistance a t Christmas, g ivin g as a reason th a t the father had been ill for
two w eeks.

Assistance was refused, as the fam ily had property.

The little girl in

th isfa m ily said, when asked if she had been promoted in school, “ W e go to the country,
and th en we d o n ’t p ass.”
The fam ily of a cabinetm aker in w hich there were seven children under 16 years
of age w ent to N e w Jersey for cranberry p ick in g in the fall of 1921 because th e y
“ needed m o n e y ,” th e father rem aining in P h iladelph ia and a t work.

A n older boy

was not working but was attending law school a t the U n iversity of P ennsylvania.

1918 the fa m ily had applied to a relief agen cy for shoes so th a t the children could go
to school, as the father was ill and had been ou t o f work for three months.

The visitor

for the relief agency reported that the father was receiving m oney from a m utual-bene
fit society and that the fam ily was bu yin g a house, in w hich th e y had four tenants.
T he house was clean, the children w ell dressed, an d there was p le n ty of food.
incom e was deem ed sufficient and no relief was giv e n .

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The

THE CHILDREN’S WORK.
The migratory families in the study contained 549 working chil
dren— 253 girls and 296 boys. Of this number 79 per cent were
under 14 years of age and 21 per cent were under 10. The proportion
of working children under 10 years of age was approximately the
same in migratory and in local families. A slightly smaller proportion
of the migratory workers than of those in local f amilies were children
from 14 to 16, probably because at this age many of the city boys
and girls have secured regular employment and stay in the city to
work even when their families go to the country. Some of the
workers were “ old hands” on the farms. Of those who had reached
their twelfth birthday, about one-fifth had worked in the fields five
summers or more.
T a b l e X I I . — A g e o f m igratory children at begin n in g fie ld w ork, by age A u g u s t 3 1 , 1921.
Working children under 16 years of age in migratory families.
Age at beginning field work.
Age Aug. 31,1921.
Total.

Total...............................
Under 10 years.........................
10 years, under 11....................
11 years, under 12....................
12 years, under 13....................
13 years, under 14....................
14 years, under 15.-__________
15 years, under 10..................................
Not reported........................................

Under
6 years.

6 years,
under 7.

7 years,
under 8.

8 years,
under 9.

Num Per
ber. cent.

Num Per
ber.
cent.

Num Per
ber. cent.

549

2.4

4.4

8.7

12.9

117
76
63
83
96
57
54
3

4
1
4
1
2

3.4
1.3
6.3
1. 2
2.1

16
3
1
2
i
1

28
4
•3

23.9
5.3
4.8

40
11
3

34.2
14.5
4.8

6.3

1.9

4
4
2

4.2

13.7
3.9
1.6
%4
1.0
1.8

¿7

1.9

Working children under 10 years of age in migratory families.
Age at beginning field work.
Age Aug. 31,1921.

y years,
under 10.

iu years,
under 12.

Num- Per
ber.
cent.

Total...............................

14.2

156

28.4

Under 10 yearg..........................
10 years, tinder 11.....................
11 years, under 12.................
12 years, under 13.....................
13 years, under 14.....................
14 years, under 15.....................
15 years, under 10.....................
Not reported...........................

25
17
14
10
4
5
3

21.4
22.4
22.2
12.0
4.2
8.8
5.6

38
34
34
34
8
8

50.0
54.0
41. 0
35.4
14.0
14.8

12 years,
under 14.

Number.

Per
cent.

100

18.2-

23
40
22
14
1

27. 7
41. 7
38.6
25.9

14 years
and over.

Not reported.

Number.

Per
cent.

Number.

5.1

5.6

4
11
17

19.3
31.5

3
8

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Per
cent.

5Ì 3
14.8

WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

Kinds of work.
The work of children in migratory families is less varied than that
of local workers. Their services are utilized chiefly at harvesting
time and consist chiefly of picking cranberries and strawberries.
Whatever educational value work on the farm may have for the
farm child who engages in a variety of tasks the work done by seasonal
workers is unskilled and uneducative in the extreme. Even when
children remain on one farm throughout the season they do little
work of any kind other than picking. Five boys in the study reported
either plowing or cultivating and a few children had helped with
planting and transplanting, but the number of children having such
variety of work was negligible. Even weeding, work which is
commonly done by local children, was reported by less than 10 per
cent of the migrating group. Practically all the children, however,
large and small, boys and girls, help with picking. About one-fifth
of the children had picked tomatoes, one-sixth had picked beans
or peas, or had gathered potatoes, and some had helped harvest
cantaloupes, cucumbers, and a few other vegetables; but 44 per cent
(242) had picked strawberries and 72 per cent (397) cranberries.
T able

X III .— K in d s

o f field work done by children in m igra tory fa m ilies , by age.

Children under 16 years of age doing each specified kind of field work.
Kinds of field work.

Total.
General:
Cultivating..................
Hoeing., , .....................
Weeding......................
Thinning......................
Planting.......... ..................
Transplanting2. ................
Droppings.........................
Harvesting:
Picking........................
Gathering potatoes,
sw eet p o t a t o e s ,
beets, t u r n i p s ,
onions...................... .
Cutting asparagus, let
tuce, rhubarb, spin
ach, kale, cabbages,
watermelons, canta
loupes, pumpkins,
or other crops.........
Pulling beets, carrots,
onions, radishes,
turnips, or other
crops........................
Husking.....................

14 years,
12 years,
10 years,
8 years,
Un under 10.
under 16. . Not
under 14.
under 12.
re
der
8 Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per port
Num- Per yrs.1
ed.1
ber.
cent.
cent.
cent.
ber.
ber.
ber. cent.
ber. cent.
Total.

549 100.0
3
46
39
13
11
19
17

0.5
8.4
7.1
2.4
2.0
3.5
3.1

536

97.6

16.6

Shocking..........
C a r r y in g b a s k e ts ,
hampers, etc___
Other:
Driving............... .
Loading............... .
Other truck work.
Other field work.

83 100.0

2
4

2.4
4.8

2.4

97.6

18.1

139 100.0

179 100.0

I ll 100.0

0.7
3.6
6.5
2.2
.7
.7
2.9

20
18
4
6
10
7

11.2
10.1
2,2
3.4
5.6
3.9

2
19
■8
5
4
8
4

1.8
17.1
7.2
4.5
3.6
7.2
3.6

136

97.8

174

97.2

109

98.2

16.5

15.6

17.1

15.3

1
5
9
3
1
1
4 )

111
55

10.0

8.4

5.8

12.3

33
18
11
7

6.0
3.3
2.0
1.3

1
1

5
1
1

6.0
1.2
1.2

8
3
1
1

5.8
2.2
.7
.7

14
8
7
2

7.8
4.5
3.9
1.1

5
5
2
4 r

4.5
4.5
1.8
3.6

3.5

3.6

2.2

5.0

3.6

2
2
52
29

.4
.4
9.5
5.3

19
11

10.6
6.1

1
2
12
9

.9
1.8
10.8
8.1

6
3

7.2
3.6

15
4

10.8
2.9 1

•T
......
■—

1 Per cent not shown where base is less than 50.
2 Includes “ setting out.” _
» Includes children who in connection with the planting or transplanting of any crop did dropping only,
though
the
same
children
may
have
both
dropped
and
set
out
in
transplanting
some other crop.
for FRASER

Digitized
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

C R A N B E R R Y P IC K E R S AND C A R E T A K E R S OF YO U N G ER C H IL D R E N W H O SE
M O T H ER S PICKED .
34—1

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

1. H O U S E S F O R W O R K E R S ON A 3,000-ACRE F A R M . 2. S H A N T Y H O U S I N G 47
P E R S O N S , 3. C O O K I N G A R R A N G E M E N T S O F H O U S E S S H O W N IN T O P
PICTU RE.

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

Children consider picking cranberries easier work than picking
either strawberries or tomatoes. The fruit is not heavy like tomatoes,
nor is it necessary to pick one berry at a time as in the case of straw
berries. Cranberries grow along slender stems that are inclined to
mat rather close to the ground. The worker cups his hands around
the base of the plant and, gently drawing the branches through his
fingers, shells off the berries. The fruit is picked into wooden boxes
having iron bails for handles and varying in size, on the different
bogs, from 8 to 12 quarts. Small receptacles, such as tin cans and
boxes, are sometimes used by the children but have to be dumped
into the regulation boxes before the berries are carried to the packing
shed. No skill is required, but it takes practice to work with any
speed. As the fruit is small and is concealed by the branches of the
plants, it is necessary in order not to lose a great deal of the crop
through carelessness to have the pickers well organized and to en
force strict discipline on the bog. The field is staked off in rows
about a rod wide and a family or group of about six or seven workers
are assigned to each row. The pickers start at one end of the field
and work down it together. The hours are generally long, as there
is always danger of a frost before the harvest is completed. A t the
end of the day the pickers are tired and stiff and their fingers are
sore. As the season advances the workers complain of the cold; and
when frost threatens the bogs are flooded every night to protect the
berries, and are still damp when the pickers begin work the next
morning. A t such times they sometimes come off the bog with their
Clothes wet to the knees. At the end of the season when danger from
frost is imminent cranberry owners resort to “ scooping,” a much
speedier method of harvesting but one considered at the time of the
survey not so desirable as picking because the fruit was said to be
easily bruised. The scoop is made of wood, pronged and covered with
tin at one end. The worker thrusts the prongs through the branches
of the plants and with an upward thrust shells off the berries into the
scoop. The worker has to stand, bending his body from the waist
as he works. The scoop when empty weighs from 7 to 10 pounds
and when full holds about 25 pounds of berries. Children, however,
generally empty them before they are full. One farmer said that
because scooping was such hard work he relieved women and children
after half a day, if he had to resort to their help, by permitting them
to pick for the remainder of the day. Sixteen children, three of
whom were girls, reported scooping.
Hours of work.
The city children worked on the whole longer hours than the local
workers, a working day of from 9 to 10 hours being customary. A
report on the hours spent in the field on the last day of work previous
to the bureau agent’s visit, which it was believed was fairly typical,

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WORK OF CHILDREN OK TRUCK AKD

was secured for 427 of the 549 migratory children who had worked.
Fifty-nine per cent of the city children, as compared with 34 per cent
of the children in resident families, reported that they had worked
more than 8 hours. This comparison may be true, however, only
for the season of the year in which the study was made. The majority
of the migratory laborers had picked cranberries on the day for which
the report on hours was secured, and while cranberries can not, per
haps, be called a “ rush” crop, the danger that the fruit may be dam
aged by frost before it can be harvested results in as regular and as
long a working day as the weather permits. A t the time of the inter
view about 80 per cent of the migratory families were living in labor
camps, where the work was well organized and the hours regulated.
Pickers went to the bog when the signal was given by the row boss,
usually some time between 7 and 9 a. m., as cranberries can not be
picked until the dew is off the ground. With half an hour’s inter
mission for lunch, work continued until late in the afternoon, the hour
for stopping varying with the different camps. The hours of the
children reporting work on other crops, principally beans, tomatoes,
and strawberries, were not so uniform except in one camp. The
women and children were often used as a reserve labor supply and their
services utilized only irregularly. Sometimes they worked 10 hours a
day, it was said, and sometimes less.
The working hours of children under 10 years of age varied widely.
Some worked all day and others only a few hours. Some mothers set
a definite task for each child to accomplish during the day, to get
them used to work, and because “ every little bit helped” ; others let
their children work very irregularly. A report on hours could be
obtained therefore for only 60 of the 117 children under the age of 10.
Of this number 33, 9 of them being under 8 years of age, had worked
more than 8 hours.
Of 261 children from 10 to 13 years of age reporting hours, 155 had
worked more than 8 hours, and, of 105 14 years of age and over, about
three-fifths had worked that long. The working day was practically
the same for girls as for boys.
For 176 of the children in migratory families it was possible to obtain
a report on the hours of work for the entire week preceding the inter
view with the family. Only 15 children had worked less than five
days, 70 had worked just five days, and 89 a six-day week. Only
eight children reported work on Sunday. Sunday work was infre
quent, though it was resorted to if the season was bad and picking
interrupted frequently by rains. One hundred and nineteen of the
176 children had worked at least 40 hours during the week, and 28
had worked 50 hours or more. These hours, it must be remembered,
are in most cases for work on the cranberry bogs. Earlier in the sea
son, when work was in progress on various truck crops, many families
complained that there was not enough work for the women and chil
dren, and the father’s earnings alone did not pay them for coming out.

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S M A L L -F R U I T F A R M S I N

SOUTHERN

NEW

JERSEY.

T a b l e X I V .— H ours sp en t in field w ork by m igratory children on a typ ica l day, by age.

Working children under 16 years of age in migratory families.
Total.

Under 10
years.

Hours of field work on typical day.

10 years, under 11 years, under
11.
12.

Per cent Num Per cent Num Per cent
Num Percent
distri Num
distri ber. distri ber. distri
ber. bution.
ber. bution.
bution.
bution.
Total..................................................

549

Reporting hours worked in field:
Total......................... ............................

427

100.0

Less than 4 hours..........................
4 hours, less than 6........................
6 hours, less than 8........................
8 hours, less than 9........................
9 hours, less than 10......................
10 horns, less than 11............... . . .
11 hours, less than 12....................
12 hours, less than 13....................

12
79
58
103
124
43
7
1

2.8
18.5
13.6
24.1
29.0
10.1
1.6
.2

6
7
11
11
18
6
1

10.0
11.7
18.3
18.3
30.0
10.0
1.7

1
13
5
10
14
8

20.0
25.5
9.8
19.6
27.5
15.7

1
5
5
17
17
4
1

2.0
10.0
10.0
34.0
34.0
8.0
2.0

Hours not reported.....................................

122

117

Working children under 16 years of age in migratory families.

Hours of field work on typical day.

12 years, under 13 years, under 14 years, under 15 years, under
13.
!4.
15.
16.

Age
not re
port
cent
Per cent Num Per cent Num Per cent
Num Per
ed.
distri Num
distri ber. distri
distri
ber. bution.
ber. bution.
bution. ber. bution.

T o ta l....................................

Reporting hours worked in field:
Total.........................................

100.0

100,0

100.0

Less than 4 hours..............
4 hours, less than 6 ...........
6 hours, less than 8...........
8 hours, less than 9 ...........
9 hours, less than 10.........
10 hours, less than 11.......
11 hours, less than 12........
12 hours, less than 13........

2
16
12
14
18
6
2

2.9
22.9
17.1
20.0
25,7
8,6
2.9

2
19
10
22
25
10
1
1

2.2
21.1
11.1
24.4
27.8
11.1
1.1
1.1

10
6
14
18
6

18.5
11.1
25.9
33.3
11.1

9
9
15
13
3
2

17.6
17.6
29.4
25.5
5.9
3.9

Hours not reported........................

Duration of work.
Since city children’s work was restricted to special crops, the
season spent in the field was not long in comparison with that of
children who lived on farms the year round. Of 401 children who
were able to give information regarding the duration of their work
76 per cent had worked less than two months and 30 per cent less
than one; none, however, had worked less than 12 days. Nine
children were reported to have worked four months or more.
Earnings.
The rates paid imported laborers for their services were the same
as for local workers. As the migratory families work as a family

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

group, it was difficult to obtain any statement of their earnings
as individuals. Only 186 of the 549 children could tell the exact
amount earned even on the day preceding the agent’s visit. Most
of them had worked on piece rates, but because of the variation in
the rates and in the amount of work done, for the purpose of com
parison their earnings have been reduced to an hourly basis. Al
though all except 14 of the 186 children were 10 years of age or over,
81 per cent had earned less than 15 cents an hour and 46 per cent
less than 10 cents. Only 10 children had earned as much as 20
cents an hour.
Few of the migratory laborers are paid at regular intervals for
their work (only 12 per cent of the entire group reported that they
received their money regularly each week) and many receive no
money until the end of the season. Fully half the families included
in the study said that they had received no cash until their work
was completed. As they turn in their filled baskets they are given
tickets or checks indicating the amount due them, and while some
farmers redeem a portion of the checks from time to time upon
request, the full amount due is not paid until the season is over.
Farmers take this precaution to prevent their workers from leaving
at a critical time. One farmer who paid weekly protected himself
by holding back one week’s wages. Although the checks are ac
cepted as money at the company stores, which several of the camps
had, and usually throughout the neighborhood, the practice of with
holding part of the wages often works a hardship upon families who
have not sufficient cash in hand to carry them through the season.
In one camp a company store was run b y the padrone, who issued
tickets to the workers, for which they paid at the end of the season.
Complaints of the high prices charged at the store were frequent,
and many of the workers traded there only when their supplies
brought from home gave out. The families usually spend several
days before they leave the city in baking and preparing food, and
take as much food as they can carry with them because they find
that supplies in the country are hard to procure or more expensive
than provisions bought in town. As one mother said, “ If you
don’t bring your food out from the city you just work for the store.”
Through the courtesy of the owners access to the pay rolls of three
of the cranberry bogs visited was given Children’s Bureau agents.
Unfortunately the amount appearing on the pay roll was not in all
cases the entire amount earned during the season but only that paid
in cash either at the close of the season or from time to time upon
request; some of the workers exchanged the tickets with which
they were paid when they turned in their baskets of berries or vege
tables for produce at company stores or at stores in the neighborhood,

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

and it was impossible to ascertain how much they had received in
all. Many families, of course, do not cash their tickets until the end
of the season, and for these the amount oh the pay roll represents
the actual amount earned; for other families it is only part of their
earnings. O f the 226 families whose earnings were copied from the
pay roll the m ajority had received in cash between $100 and $300
for their season’s work— 43 per cent between $100 and $200, and 20
per cent between $200 and $300. Eighteen per cent had earned
$300 or more. Unfortunately the number of pickers in each family
could not be ascertained from the pay rolls, so that it is not possible
to state how many persons were represented in the family groups
earning these amounts.

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EFFECT OF MIGRATIONS ON SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
School records of children in the families visited.
The loss of schooling and the inevitable effect that such loss has
upon the child’s educational progress is one of the most serious evils
of the practice of importing family labor to the farms. Although
the actual time worked is seldom more than three months, the work
extends over a period beginning sometimes as early as March and
lasting until after the cranberry harvest in October or November.
Not only are the working children themselves affected, but also their
brothers and sisters who come out to the country with their families
but are either too young to pick or are needed to look after younger
children. As a rule no effort is made to send the children to school
during their residence in New Jersey. The local school authorities
assume no responsibility on the ground that the children are not resi
dents of the State. It is true that the local schools are already full
and would have difficulty in adjusting themselves to the sudden influx
that opening their doors to the migratory children would cause at
the beginning and end of the school term. The farmers are not
usually interested in getting the children in school, as they feel that
they need the children’s work in order to get their crops to market.
Parents are for the most part primarily intent upon the money that
the children’s labor adds to the family income, which would be con
siderably diminished if the children of the family were compelled to
spend part of the day in school. The one farmer in the area studied
who was interested in enforcing school attendance was meeting with
great difficulties at the time of the survey in making a first attempt
to compel the children on his farm to attend school. They would not
go to school unless forced to do so and as he employed much migratory
labor it took a great deal of time and effort to compel them. Some
of the parents, also, resenting the fact that the family’s earning
capacity was being reduced, were moving back to the city, leaving
the farmer to manage as best he could. Their attitude was ex
pressed b y one mother who said that it did not pay them to stay out
in the country if only the parents could work, and if the children had
to go to school “ they might as well go to their own.”
To ascertain just how serious were the inroads made upon school
attendance b y their migration for work on the truck farms, an effort
was made to secure the attendance records for the preceding school
40

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND SMALL-FRUIT FARMS.

year for the 528 children included in the study who had been in school.
Owing to the difficulty of tracing the foreign names and the meagre
ness of the information given by some families, records were obtained
for only 294 children. Three-fourths of these had been present
less than 80 per cent and a little over one-fourth had attended less
than 60 per cent of the school term. Twenty-nine children had been
in school less than half the term. This means that some of the
children spent a very short time in school. The schools attended by
the children were in session from 181 to 194 days, but one-third of
the children had been present less than 120 days during the year,
and more than one-tenth had had less than 100 days’ schooling.
Information as to the amount o f absence due solely to migrations to
farms was obtained for 201 children. These records show even more
strikingly than those secured for the entire group how seriously farm
work cuts into schooling. Only 33 'of these children had remained
in school until the close of the term and had enrolled as soon as school
opened in the fall. One-half of the number had lost eight or more
weeks because of their sojourn in New Jersey, and about 29 per cent
had lost 12 or more weeks for the same cause. The average number
of days’ absence from school reported for the group was 59, the
average for farm work alone being 43. This average is much higher
than that for children living on the truck farms, who reported losing
on an average 20 days for farm work.
Under these conditions it is not surprising to find that a large pro
portion of the children in the migratory families had failed to reach
the grades considered normal for their years.1 Although school
progress is affected b y so many different factors that it is impossi
ble to determine with certainty which may have been the most in
fluential one, it seems likely that irregularity of school attendance
so marked as that found among the children of migratory workers,,
including absence at the most critical period of the school year, is
for this group the most important cause of retardation. In fact the
records of these children show a direct relation between retardation
and the percentage of attendance, the proportion of retarded pupils
usually growing larger as the percentage of attendance becomes
smaller. Of 505 children between 8 and 16 years of age included in
the study, almost three-fourths were in a grade below the one normal
for their age, one-third being from three to six years below such grade.
If these children had been retarded no more than the average for city
children as calculated by the United States Bureau of Education, 29
per cent instead of 74 per cent would have been below the standard
grade for their years. The result of nonpromotion year after year is
that the 14-year-old child, who may usually leave school for work, has
1For the basis upon which retardation has been calculated, see p. 20.

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

often acquired little more than the ability to read and write. Of 91
children 14 years of age and over included in the study whose grade
was reported, only 23 had reached a grade higher than the fifth.
T a b l e X V . — Progress in school o f m igratory working children between 8 and 16 years
o f age, by age.

Migratory working children between 8 and 16 years of age attending school.

Total.
Progress in school.

8 years,
under 10.

12 years,
under 14.

10 years,
under 12.

14 years,
under 16.

Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Percent
Percent
Num distri Num distri Num distri Num distri Num distri
ber. bution. ber. bution. ber. bution. ber. bution. ber. bution.
Total....................... 1 505
Retarded..........................
1 year.........................
2 years........................
3 years........................
Normal.............................
Advanced.........................
Progress not reported-----

372
121
115
136
91
4
138

100.0
73.7
24.0
22.8
26.9
18.0
.8
7.5

100.0

35
25
10

42.7
30.5
12.2

42
2
3

51.2
2.4
3.7

139
94
40
46
8
32
1
12

100.0
67.6
28.8
33.1
5.8
23.0
.7
8.6

179

100.0

Ì02

100.0

154
44
37
73
15
1
9

86.0
24.6
20.7
40.8
8.4
.6
5.0

89
12
22
55
2

87.3
11.8
21.6
53.9
2.0

10.8

i Includes 3 children for whom age was not reported.
T a b l e X V I .— R etardation o f children in m igratory fa m ilies in the N ew Jersey group as

com pared with average retardation am ong city children.
Children between 8 and 16
years of age attending school.
Average
rate of
retarda
tion.1

Retarded.

Age.
Total.

Actual Expected
number. number.

505

372

144

«28.5

34
48
86
63
83
96
56
46
3

10
25
51
43
69
85
50
39

4
7
16
17
27
35
21
17

10.5
15.5
21.6
26.9
32.4
36.5
37.8
37.3

1Except the figure for all ages, the figures are average rates of retardation for each age among 1,429,000
pupils in 80 cities. Unpublished figures furnished by courtesy of the United States Bureau of Education.
^ 2The average per cent of retardation in this group of children if the rates for each age m the 80 cities had
prevailed in the group.

School records of Philadelphia children migrating for seasonal farm work.
In order to ascertain in more detail the effect of seasonal farm work
upon the school attendance and the school progress of city school
children who go out to the truck farms, a study of the records of
children leaving or staying out of Philadelphia schools to engage in
truck farming was undertaken b y the Children’s Bureau in Novem
ber, 1921. Through the courtesy of school officials and of the chief of

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SMALL-F R U IT F A R M S I N S O U T H E R N N E W J E R S E Y .

the bureau of compulsory education, copies were secured of attendance
and scholarship records for 1,298 children in different parts of the city
who had left school in the spring of 1921 because of their families’
removal to the country. This number does not represent all of those
leaving the city for work on farms. The reports of absentees were
compiled several weeks before the close of school, and information
concerning the number that left after the compilation was made was
not obtained. Moreover, certain public schools known to have lost
many pupils for farm work were not represented in the returns,
though every district supervisor except one submitted records of
some absentees. The principal of one large parochial school not
included in the returns also said, when later interviewed, that about
one-third of the entire school, or more than 300 children, had gone
out to farms in May and June, before the close of the term. It was
the opinion of the attendance department that the actual number of
children leaving town each spring because of farm work undertaken
by either themselves or their parents, was between 2,500 and 3,000.
While the migrations of school children were greatest in May when
the strawberry crop was harvested, a number of children were reported
by the attendance department to have left the city for farm work as
early as February and March. Less than 50 of the 1,298 cnildren
for whom records were secured, even though they had left the city
for early spring work had returned and reentered school before its
close, the third week of June.
As practically three-fourths of the spring withdrawals were found to
have occurred in one district, where the population was almost
wholly Italian, eight schools in this district— six public and two paro
chial— where the percentage of absence in the spring and fall was
very high, were chosen for special study. The attendance records of
all children enrolled in these eight schools during the year 1920-21
were examined by an agent of the bureau after the close of the session
in June and copies were made of the records of all children under 16
who had entered late in the fall and withdrawn early in the spring, or
who had been absent for two weeks or more consecutively, in either
the fall or the spring. Records of beginners who had entered school for
the first time during the second term and of children who had been
enrolled in other schools for a part of the year were excluded. In
November, when the majority of migratory families had returned to
the city, each one of these eight schools was visited and as many as
possible of the children whose attendance records had been secured
were interviewed. Detailed information was obtained only from
those children who said that their absence from school had been due
to farm work engaged in b y themselves or other members of tlieir
families. The dates of entry and withdrawals previously secured
from the school records were checked carefully with the children’s

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WORK OF CHILtDßEISr OFT TRUCK AJ5TD

statements as to when they had returned from the country and when
they had gone out in the spring, in order to ascertain as accurately
as possible the number of days of absence due to seasonal farm work.
Many children, especially younger ones, did not themselves work
but were absent from school because they were obliged to go with
their parents and older brothers and sisters. One hundred and
seventy-six of the children who were reported to have gone to the
country in the spring or summer from the six public schools were not
in attendance at the time of the survey and hence could not be inter
viewed. Whether they were still in the country or had delayed
entering school upon their return to the city could not be learned.
In the eight schools visited 869 children in 512 families were inter
viewed who had been absent in the fall of 1920 or in the spring of 1921
or both because of seasonal farm work. These children represented
9.2 per cent of the enrollment in their schools. (See Table X V II.)
Figures given b y the school principals showed that the 616 children
for whom schedule information was secured in the six public schools
represented only a little more than three-fourths of the number who
had actually gone to the country from those schools, and that the
253 in the two parochial schools represented only about one-third of
their pupils who had gone to the country ; so that had it been practi
cable to interview every child in the eight schools who had been
absent during the year for work on farms, the study would probably
have included nearly 1,500, or about 16 per cent of the total
enrollment.
T a b l e X V I I .— P rop ortion o f children in selected Philadelphia schools absent on account

o f farm , work.

Schools.

Average
enroll
ment.

Children interview
ed who had been
absent from school
on
account of
farm work.1

Number.

Total.
Public 2. .
I ........
I I ....
I H ...

IV ...
V ....
V I ...
Parochial *
I.

Per cent
of aver
age en
rollment.

9,449

869

9.2

7,119
667
773
1,065
759

616
117
113
63
124
144
55
253
121
132

&7
17.5
14.6
5.9
16.3
7.6

1,888

1,967
2.330
1.330
1,000

2.8

10.9
9.1
13.2

1 Includes both children who did farm work themselves and those absent because of fa r m work per
formed by other members o f the family.
192? eP°rt of the Bureau of Compulsory Education for the year ending June 30,1921, p. 62. Philadelphia,
8 Information furnished by the principals of the schools.

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

Of the 869 children included in the study nearly one-half (47 per
cent) were in the country and away from school both in the spring
and in the fall. The number of children absent only in the spring was
greater than the number absent only in the fall— 321 as compared
with 140. This difference is partly accounted for by the fact that
many children who went out for fall work had not returned at the
time of the survey in November and were therefore not included in
the number who were interviewed.
The families of 52 per cent of the children who moved to the
country in the spring went for berry picking only; and those of 42.5
per cent went for general truck farming, which consisted of work on a
variety of crops, such as asparagus, tomatoes, peas, beans, other vegeta
bles or fruits, and frequently strawberries, blackberries, or raspberries
in addition. The general truck workers usually went earlier and stayed
longer than the berry pickers who, when they did no other kind of
farm work, left the city about the middle of May and returned after
the season was over, in June or July. Of the children whose families
went only for berry picking 13.7 per cent had lost 30 days or more of
school, whereas 26.5 per cent, or twice as many, of the children whose
families engaged in general truck-farm work had lost as many days.
During the last two weeks of May a general exodus from the schools
to the berry fields took place, and 269, or 71 per cent, of the children
who went out only for berry picking left town at that time.
T a b l e X V I I I .— Season o f children's absence from , school on account o f farm w ork;

Philadelphia.

C h ild r e n absent
from school on
account of farm
work.1

Season of absenee from school.

Per cent
Number. distribu
tion.
Total..................... .
Spring only.....................
..........................

Both spring and fall..........

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

f r f

869

100.0

321
140
408

36.9
16.1
47.0

WOrb themselves and tbose absent because * farm work ner-

W O R K OF C H IL D R E N

ON TR U CK AND

T a b l e X I X .— D uration o f children’ s absence fro m school on account o f farm* work in
the sprin g o f 1921, by reason fo r first m ove to a farm in g com m unity in 1921; Phila

delphia.
Children absent from school on account of farm work in the
spring of 1921.’
Reason for first move to a farming community
in 1921.
Total.

Duration of spring absence for
farm work.

Truck farm
ing.

Berry picking
only.

cent Num Per cent Num Per cent
Num Per
distri
distri
distri
ber. bution. ber. bution. ber. bution.

Total..............................
Less than 10 d a y s...
10 days, less than 20.
20 days, less than 30.
30 days, less than 40.
40 days, less than 50.
50 days, less than 60.
60 days, less than 70.
Not reported............

100.0

310

*729

100.0

379

100.0

g
124
437
87
29
15
16
13

1.1
17.0
59.9
11.9
4.0
2.1
2.2
1.8

3
50
269
37
11
2
2
5

.8
13.2
71.0
9.8
2.9
.5
.5
1.3

Not re^
Other.2 ported.*

2
62
159
43
16
11
12 1
5

20.0
51.3
13.9
5.2
3.5
3.9
1.6

3
5
7
5
4
3
4
2 ..............

2
3

’ Includes both children who did farm work themselves and those absent because of farm work performed
^ P efcen *tofiributi<m notdfow n when base « less than 50.
3Of the 869 children studied 140 were absent m the fall only .
T a b l e X X -D u r a tio n o f children’ s absence from school on

in the
T fa l* o fl9 2 0 , by reason fo r last m ove to a farm in g com m unity in 1920 ; Philadelphia.
Children absent from school on account of farm work in the fall of 1920.'
Reason for last move to a farming community in 1920.
Duration of fall absence
for farm work.

Total.

Truck farm
ing.

Cranberry
picking only.

Work in
canneries.

Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Num distri Num distri Num distri Num distri
ber. bution. ber. bution. ber. bution. ber. bution.
Total..
Less than 10 days. . .
10 days, less than 20.
20 days, less than 30.
30 days, less than 40.
40 days, less than 50.
50 days, less than 60.
60 days, less than 70.
Not reported............

3 548
38
151
120
118
71
36
3
11

100.0

266

100.0

6.6

43
53
23

6.0
29.7
16.9
16.2
19.9
8.6

2.0

1.5

6.9
27.6
21.9
21.5
13.0
.5

16
79

Not re
Other.* port
ed.*

181

100.0

12
33
55
58
10
7

6.6
18.2
30.4
32.0
5.5
3.9

3
19
11
5
8
4

6.0
38.0
22.0
10.0
16.0
8.0

4
13
4
7

3
7
5
5

3.3

2
i

’ Includes both children who did farm work themselves and those absent because of farm work performed by other members of the family.
2 Per cent distribution not shown where base ’ s less than 50.
« Of the 869 children studied 321 were absent in the spring only.

Cranberry picking alone was responsible for the absence of 33 per
cent of the 548 children who were away from school in the fall of 1920
on account of farm work. While some other children were kept from
school during cranberry season for work in the bogs, it was not for

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SMALL-FRUIT FARMS IX SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY.

this reason only that their families had moved to a particular farming
community. Nearly one-half (48.5 per cent) of the absentees had
gone out primarily for work on truck farms. Some of these truck
workers migrated in the spring or summer and remained in the
country the entire farming season to do various kinds of work,
while others went out in the fall to help harvest numerous late crops,
including cranberries. Fruit and vegetable canneries offered con
siderable employment in the fall, especially to the mothers; while
only a few children in the present study worked in canneries, 50 were
kept out of school in the fall because they were with their mothers
who had left the city on account of such employment.
The great majority (77.7 per cent) of the 869 children for whom
information was obtained were between 8 and 14 years of age— within
the age of compulsory school attendance. Only 91 under 8 years were
interviewed, since many young children who went to the farms had
not yet been enrolled in the schools. The number between 14 and 16
was also relatively small, for children of migratory families belong to
the group who usually leave school as soon as they* can be legally
employed and do not return. Another possible reason for the smaller
proportion of children in the higher age groups may be the growing
dislike that they were reported to have for farm work and their ready
acceptance of city jobs in preference during the summer vacation.
Seven hundred and twenty-eight children (83.8 per cent of the
number interviewed) reported having done some farm work while in
the country. Those who had not worked were for the most part
under 10 years of age. The kinds of farm work in which the children
of different ages had engaged are shown in Table X X II.
T a b l e X X I .— A ge o f children absent from school on account o f fa rm w ork, year 1920-21 ,1
by sex ; P hiladelphia.

Children absent from school for farm work, year 1920-21.1
Total.

Boys.

Age.
Number.

Girls.

Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
distri Number. distri Number. distri
bution.
bution.
bution.

Total...................................................

869

100.0

464

100.0

405

100.0

5 years, under 6 ............................................
6 years, under 7 ............................................
7 years, under 8............................................
8 years, under 9. : .........................................
9 years, under 10..........................................
10 years, under 11.........................................
11 years, under 12.........................................
12 years, under 13.........................................
13 years, under 14.........................................
14 years, under 15.........................................
15 years, under 16........................................
Age not reported..........................................

4
22
65
104
118
106
118
122
107
56
32
15

.5
2.5
7.5
12.0
13.6
12.2
13.6
14.0
12.3
6.4
3.7
1.7

3
11
37
54
62
65
59
61
55
29
20
8

.6
2.4
8.0
11.6
13.4
14.0
12.7
13.1
11.9
6.2
4.3
1.7

1
11
28
50
56
41
59
61
52
27
12
7

.2
1.7
6.9
12.3
13.8
10.1
14.6
15.1
12.8
6.7
3.0
1.7

1Includes both children who did farm work themselves and those absent because of farm work performed
by other members of the family.

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WORK

OF C H IL D R E N

TRUCK AND

T a b l e X X I I .— K in d s o f fa rm worh done by children absent from school on account o f

fa rm worlc, by age; Philadelphia.
Children doing each specified kind of farm work.
Total.

Kind of farm work.

Total.
General:
Cultivating............ .................................
Hoeing....................................... ............
Weeding.................................................
T hinning....... „ .......................................
Hand planting................................... .
Transplanting2.............................................
Dropping3.....................................................
Harvesting:
Pieking beans or peas............................
Picking eggplant, cantaloupes, cucum
bers, tomatoes, or peppers...............
Picking strawberries..............................
Picking cranberries...............................
Scooping cranberries.............................
Picking blackberries, raspberries, or
huckleberries............ ......................
Picking watermelons............................
Picking up or digging potatoes, or
sweet potatoes....................................
Pulling beets, carrots, onions, or rad
ishes....................................................
Husking corn.................... ....................
Shocking c o m .......................................
Cutting asparagus.................................
Cutting rhubarb....................................
Cutting head lettuce------ --------- -------Sorting or bunching.............................
Packing or crating................................
Carrying baskets, hampers, etc...........
Other:
Drawing or hauling...............................
Loading............... ................. ......... .
Other form work............................... .

Number.

Per
cent.

1728

100.0

13
91
107
8
32
30
51

1.8
12.5
14.7
1.1
4.4
4.1
7.0

254

34.9

208
503
260
7

28.6
69.1
35.7
1.0

252
9

5 years, 6 years, 7 years, 8 years, 9 years,
under
under
under
under
under
10.
9.
7.
8.
6.

4
7

2
2

3
1
6

2
4
2

6
23
12

17
51
29

22
60
38
1

34.6
1.2

180

24.7

38
47
30
28
2
4
22
4
93

5.2
6.5
4.1
3.8
.3
.5
3.0
.5
12.8

1
2
1

3
5
2
2

11
10
188

1.5
1.4
25.8

............

1
10

Children doing each specified kind of form work.
Kind of farm work.

Total.
General:
Cultivating.......................................
Hoeing.............................................
Weeding.......... ............................... .
Thinning.........................................
Hand planting......................................
Transplanting 2.....................................
Dropping8.............................................
Harvesting:
Picking beans or peas....................
Picking eggplant, cantaloupes, cu
cumbers, tomatoes, or peppers..
Picking strawberries.....................
Picking cranberries.......................
Scooping cranberries.................
Picking blackberries, raspberries,
or huckleberries...... ....................
Picking watermelons...................

10 vearsjll years, 12 years, 13 years. 14 years, 15 years. Age not
re
under
under
under
under
under
under
16.
ported.
15.
14.
12.
13.
1194

109

120

101

1
8
18
1
2
6

1
14
18
2
9
3
7

14
20
2
6
9
14

6
25
17
2
4
9
6

2
10
9
1
3
4
4

3
12
8
1
4
2
1!

31
67
34
2

26
73
36

32
86
48
1

37
63
29

20
45
18
2

11
22
10
1

42
3'

31
3

20
1

13
2

1Excludes 141 children who did no farm work themselves but were absent from school because of work
performed b y other members of the family.
2 Includes “ setting out.”
,
,
....
•
,
3 Includes children who in connection with the planting or transplanting of any crop did dropping only,
though the same children may have both dropped and set out in transplanting some other crop.

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SMAEL-FRUIT FARMS I F SOUTHERN F E W JERSEY.
T able X X I I .

K in d s o f fa rm work done by children absent fro m school on accovM o f
fa rm w ork, by a g e; P hiladelphia—-Continued.
3
Children doing each specified kind of farm work

Kind of farm work.

Harvesting—Continued.
Picking up or digging potatoes, or
sweet potatoes...........
Pulling beets, earrots, onions, or
radishes..............
Husking corn.........
Shocking com .......
Cutting asparagus.............
Cutting rhubarb. ----Cutting head lettuce..........
Packing or crating.......... /
Carrying baskets, hampers, etc___
Other:
Drawing or hauling
Loading.........
Other farm work___
—

-------------------------- ---------------- -----

10 years, 11 years, 12 years, 13 years, 14 years, 15 years,
Age not
under
under
under
under
under
under
re
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
ported.

18
1
1
22

13
2
5
4
2

4
2
1
14

1
6

7
10
4
6
1
1
6
2
9

2
35

2
2
29

8
i
i

31 |

5
2
3
2
4
1
3 ..............
1
2
1
1
2
3
3
2
15

The majority of children return to school b y the 1st of November
as the picking of cranberries, the last crop of the season, is usually
over at that tune. A few workers come back as late as December.
Although some children reenter school as soon as they return to the
city, many are kept at home for a while on various pretexts— 'u to
clean house,” for example, or “ to get some clothes.” The attend
ance officers are on the watch for these laggards and occasionally
fand some who are illegally employed but more who are merely
truant. It is not an easy task to follow up the cases of removals to
other parts of the city after the country sojourn, and many children
escape the officers in this way for several days or even weeks.
Although the Philadelphia school authorities make every effort to
enforce the attendance laws for these children, they have, of course
no power to do so outside the city limits. Moreover, the great ma
jority of the Philadelphia families who go out for work on truck
farms move not only out of the jurisdiction of the city school officials
but also out of that of the State of Pennsylvania. Studies of other
migratory workers made b y the Children’s Bureau in different parts
of the country, as well as that of the workers migrating to New Jersey,
indicate that the communities to which these workers move seldom
consider that they have any responsibility for the education of children of compulsory school age brought in to assist in cultivating
their soil or harvesting their crops.
The average attendance for the 869 children included in the study
was between 70 and 75 per cent of the school year, although a large
number (354, or 40.7 per cent) attended less than 70 per cent; 152
(17.5 per cent) attended less than 60 per cent; and 6.6 per cent were
present less than half the school year. (Table X X III.)

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

50
T

WORK OF CHILDREN ON TRUCK AND

a b l e

X X I I I .— P

cent attendance at school o f children absent from school on account
o f fa rm w ork,1 by age; P hiladelphia.
Children absent from school on account of farm work.1
7 years,
under 8.

Total.
Per cent attendance at school.

8 years,
under 9.

9 years,
under 10.

6
5
years,
Per
Per
Per
Per years,
under
under
cent
cent
cent
Num cent
7.2 Num dis Num dis Num dis
6.«
dis
ber.
ber. tribu ber. tribu ber. tribu
tribu
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.

T o ta l.:..............

869

100.0

1
6.4
4.6
6.3
11.6
11.6
12.1
16.2
16.0
9.1
2.4
3.5

50' less than 55............

1
56
40
101
101
105
141
139
79
21
30

1
1
1

100.0

104

100.0

118

100.0

1
1
2
3
4
2
2
3
4

"3
3
6
6
7
11
6
16
6
1

4.6
4.6
9.2
9.2
10.8
16.9
9.2
24.6
9.2
1.5

5
4
4
11
15
12
17
19
11
2
4

4.8
3.8
3.8
10.6
14.4
11.5
16.3
18.3
10.6
1.9
3.8

7
8
5
13
8
16
18
23
14
4
2

5.9
6.8
4.2
11.0
6.8
13.6
15.3
19.5
11.9
3.4
1.7

Children absent from school on account of farm work.1

Per cent attendance
at school.

Total................
25, less than 50...........
50, less than 55...........
551 less than 60..........
651 less than 70..........
70l less than 75...........
8o! less than 85...........
Not reported............

12 years,
under 13.

13 Vears,
under 14.

14 years,
under 15.

10 years,
under 11.

11 years,
under 12.

106 100.0

118

100.0

122

100.0

107

100.0

8
8
4
14
9
12
2
21
a
3
4

6.8
6.8
3.4
11.9
7.6
10.2
22.0
17.8
7.6
2.5
3.4

7
1
10
9
15
13
22
21
12
5
7

5.7
.8
8.2
7.4
12.3
10.7
18. Î»
17.2
9.8
4.1
5.7

10
6
8
19
14
11
13
11
10
3
2

9.3
5.6
7.5
17.8
13.1
10.3
12.1
10.3
9.3
2.8
1.9

3
2
3
7
13
11
4
5
3
1
4

5.4
3.6
5.4
12.5
23.2
19.6
7.1
8.9
5.4
1.8
7.1

5
2
1
5
4
4
7
2

1
1
2
3
2
2
2

15
years,
Per un- IportOU
Per
Per
Per
Per
cent
cent Num- cent Num- cent der
ed.*
NumNum- cent Num16.2
disber. tribu ber. tribu- ber. tribu- ber. tribu- ber. tribution.
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.

6
3
10
10
10
10
24
18
9
2
4

5.7
2.8
9.4
9.4
9.4
9.4
22.6
17.0
8.5
19
3.8

»Includes both children who did farm work themselves and those absent because of farm work per
formed by other members of the family.
3 per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.

In only 23 per cent of the cases did absence due to farm work con
stitute all or nearly all the children’s total absences. The average
absence for farm work was between 15 and 20 per cent of the school
year, while the average total absence was between 25 and 30 per
cent. An analysis of the attendance records shows that the average
per cent of absence for that part of the year when the children were
in the city was the same (10.4) as the average per cent of absence
for all children in the public elementary schools of the same district

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

S M A U > F R U I T F A R M S 11ST S O U T H E R N

NEW

JE R S E Y .

for the entire year.2 The amount of absence for field work increased
somewhat with the age of the child, probably on account of the
greater usefulness of the older children on the farms.
The school progress of the absentees is naturally seriously affected.
At the end o f June, 1921, only 69.9 per cent of the children included
in the study were promoted as compared with 80.4 per cent of all
public elementary school children of the same district, in which the
character of the population was analogous to that of the group studied.
From Table X X I V it will be seen that the per cent of promotions
rises markedly with increased attendance, from 50 per cent of those
present less than one-half of the year to 78.5 per cent of those present
from 85 to 90 per cent of the time.
T able

XXIV.— P rom o tio n

o f children absent fr o m school on account o f fa rm w ork a
by per cent attendance; P hiladelphia.

Children absent from school on account of
farm work.®
Per cent attendance at school.

Promoted June,
1921.

Not promoted
June, 1921.

Total.
Number. Per cent.*» Number. Per cent J
Total___

C869

Less than 25...
25, less than 50
50, less than 55,
55, less than 60,
60, less than 65.
65, less than 70.
70, less than 75.
75, less than 80.
; 80, less than 85.
. 85, less than 90.
90, less than 95.
Not reported..

1
56
. 40
55
101
101
105
141
139
79
21
30

607
28
21
39
72
71
72
93
104
62
18
27

69.9
50.0
70.9
71.3
70.3
68.6
66.0
74.8
78.5

246
1
26
18
14
26
29
31
46
34
17
3
1

28.3
46.4
25.5
25.7
28.7
29.5
32.6
24.5
21.5

a Includes both children who did farm work themselves and those absent because of farm work nerformed
by other members of the family.
6 Not shown where base is less than 50.
c Includes 3 children transferred from regular to special class, 2 retained in special class, 4 transferred from
kindergarten to first grade, and 7 not reported.

In the two parochial schools included in the survey much larger
proportions of the children (81.8 and 98.5 per cent, respectively)
were promoted than in the six public schools, where the average fell
to 61.4. In one public school the percentage was as low as 44.4.
Differences in promotion policy may account for this striking
difference in the percentages of promotions.
No figures could be obtained that would make possible exact
comparison between the school progress of the migratory children
and those who did not go to the country for farm work.3 One principal
who kept separate attendance and promotion records of children who
2 Report of the Bureau of Compulsory Education for the year ending June 30,1921, p. 62. Phila
delphia, 1922.
3 Two methods of accounting for children who leave the city before the end of the term are permitted
teachers, dropping them from the roll completely or reporting them as lawfully absent. As some schools
use one method and some the other the figures are not comparable.

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

WORK

OF C H IL D R E N

TRUCK AND

entered school on time and of those who came in late from farms
gave the following report on midwinter promotions:

Per cent,
promoted.

794
628
166

Number enrolled,...... *..................................................... ......
Entered on time,..............................................................
Entered late foom country............... ..................................

84.1
87.9
74.7

As a result of long absences and consequent nonpromotions
unusually large numbers of children were retarded in the district where
spring and fall migrations were heavy.4 In the eight schools studied
71.2 per cent of the 763 children of the survey who were between 8
and 16 years of age were below normal grades for their ages; 26.3
per cent were retarded one year, 22.5 per cent two years, 14.7 per
cent three years, and 7.6 per cent from four to six years. A steady
increase in the percentage of retardation is noted from the lowest
to the highest age group, 23.1 per cent of the children between 8 and
9 years being retarded, while 94.6 percent of those between 14 and
15 were retarded. One-fourth of this latter group were four years
or more below grades normal for their ages.
Table

XXV.— P rogress

in sch ool o f children betw een 8 and 16 yea rs o f age a bsen t fr o m
sch ool o n a ccou n t o f fa r m w ork ,2 by a ge; P h ilad elph ia .

Children between 8 and 16 years of age absent from school on account of
farm work.»
Retarded.
Age.

Total..

4-6 years.

3 years.

2 years.

1 year.

Total.
Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
Num- P a
ber. cent. 6 ber. cent, b ber. cent.*» ber. cent.*» ber. cent.5
Total.
8 years, under 9........
9 years, under 10.......
10 years, under 11.......
11 years, under 12.......
12 years, under 13.......
13 years, under 14.......
14 years, under 15.......
15 years, under 16.......

763

118
122
107
56
32

543

104
106
98
53
28

71.2

88.1
86.9
91.6
94.6

201

26.3

24
49
42
37
21
18
8
2

23.1
41. -f>
39 ß
31.4
17.2
16.2
14.3

172

22.5

Ì2
23
40
45
29
21
2

10.2
21.7
33.9
36.9
27.1
37.5

112

14.7

4
26
32
28
10
12

3.8
22.0
26.2
26.2
17.9

7.6

i
8
23
14
12

.8
6.6
21.5
25.0

Children between 8 and 16 years of age absent from school on account of
farm work.®
Age.

Num
ber.
Total.

In special class.

Advanced.

Normal.
Per
eent.&

Num
ber.

Per
cent.fc

207

27.1

0.3

74.0
48.3'
.33.0
11.0
11.5
■8.4
3.6

1.9

8 years, under 9 . . . .
9 years, under 1 0 ...
10 years, under 11. . .
11 years, under 12. . .
12 years, under 1 3 ...
13 years, under 1 4 ...
14 years, under 1 5 ...
15 years, under 1 6 ...

m
35
13
14
9
2

Per
cent.5

Num
ber.
6

0.8

1.9

1.6

1.8

Not reported.
Per
cent.5

Num
ber.
5

0.7

1.0

«Includes both children who did farm work themselves and those absent because of farm work per
formed b y other members of the family.
b Not shown where base islessthan 50.
* For the basis upon which retardation is calculated, see p. 20.

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

S M A I X r F itU IT F A R M S IN' S O U T H E R N '

NEW JE R S E Y .

HOUSING THE WORKERS.

In addition to the effect of seasonal farm work upon the school
progress of children in migratory families another aspect of the
importation of labor for work on farms deserves serious considera
tion, namely, the conditions under which the families live while in
the country. The workers visited were generally housed in labor
camps. Of the 254 families included in the study 201 were living in
camps; the remainder were scattered about on various small farms,
one or two families to a farm.
The comparatively few families on small farms lived, as a rule, in
old, abandoned buildings, often too tumble-down for other use. As
far as space was concerned the people in these houses probably
fared better than those living in the camps, but frequently their
houses were not in good repair and offered but slight protection
against rain. The camps visited varied in size from only a rude
building or two, housing half a dozen families, to large, well-organized
settlements, small villages in themselves, some of them housing 300
or 400 pickers. The living quarters were of two types, either one-story
houses in a row of five or six, one or two rooms deep (see illustration
facing p. 35), or large two-story, barnlike structures divided into small
rooms upstairs and down and housing many families. The condition of
the buildings varied with the different camps. The majority visited
were in good repair, often painted or shingled outside, though unfin
ished inside, but several were ramshackle buildings much in need
of repair, without windows, and extremely dirty.
Cooking was generally done outside the shacks on improvised
fireplaces or in cookhouses provided by the farmer. One of the
best of these was a frame building approximately 12 by 15 b y 10
feet with a brick stove in the center of the room which extended its
entire length. Around three walls 3 feet above the floor was a
wooden extension about 2\ feet wide, which served as a dining table on
rainy days. Many cookhouses had only open hearths covered with
sheets o f metal for stoves. The families brought with them onl^their
bedding and dishes. Beds, straw for mattresses, and sometimes
stoves yjere furnished by the farmer. Beds were generally builtin wooden bunks, sometimes one over another to save space. The
space underneath the lowest bed, about 2 feet above the floor, was
also often used for sleeping.
No camps provided with only one large room for all the pickers and
their families, such as are found-in some of the truck-farming districts
of Maryland,5 were seen in the New Jersey areas included in the
study, though it was said that there were one or two camps of this
6 See Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, Children’s Bureau Publication No. 123, p. 25.

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

WORK

OF C H IL D R E N O N

TRUCK AND

description in the State. Each family in the camps visited had a
certain amount of privacy in having a separate room or rooms with
separate entrances either from outside or from a hallway.
Even in the best camps, however, congestion was great. The
rooms were generally small; in one camp, very good in other respects,
they were only about 42 square feet in size, and very few contained
more than 100 square feet. A family seldom had more than three
rooms; over one-fourth (28.7 per cent) had only one and about half
had only two. In these few small rooms large families were crowded.
Fifty-five per cent of the families were living with three or more
persons per room and 27 per cent with four or more. Twenty-four
families were living with six or more persons per room. Seven shan
ties, each measuring approximately 20 by 30 by 18 feet and con
taining 19 rooms, each accommodated from 11 to 16 families. One
20-room shanty of about 19,200 cubic feet housed 8 families and 10
single men, a total of 59 persons, 22 adults and 37 children. The
recommendations made by the commission enforcing the labor-camp
sanitation law of California, one of several States in which attempts
to regulate housing for migratory workers have been made,: specify
500 cubic feet as the amount of air space to be provided per person
in camp sleeping quarters.6 According to this standard, even though
no allowance for hallways is made, each person in the shanty referred
to above had only about 60 per cent of the requisite air space, and
the shanty was overcrowded to the extent of about 21 persons.
T able

XXVI.— A vera ge

num ber o f person s per room in m igratory fa m ilies in N ew
Jersey.

Migratory families.
Average number of persons per room.

Percent
Number. distribu
tion.
254

100.0

1
33
77
105
¿7
13
5
3

0.4
13.0
30.3
41.3
6.7
5.1
2.0
1.2

«Advisory Pamphlet on Camp Sanitation and Housing (Revised, 1919), Commission on Immigration
and Housing of California, p. 17. Sacramento, 1920.

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

S M A L L -F R U IT F A R M S I FT S O U T H E R N
T able

XXVII.— A verage

NEW

JERSEY.

num ber o f person s per room in fa m ilies in P hiladelphia school
stu d y.

Families in Phila
delphia s c h o o l
study.
Average number of persons per room.
Per cent
Number. distribu
tion.
Total..................................................................
Less than 1............................................................
1, less than 2......................................... .
2, less than 3 .................................................
3, less than 4 ................................................
4, less than 5 .............. : ............................ .......
5 and over............................................................ .
Not reported...............................................................
. .

512

100.0

32
258
135
50

6.3
50.4
26.4
9.8

4
27

5.3

1.2
0.8

The farmers often seek to excuse conditions by contending that
their pickers are just as comfortably housed as they are in their city
dwellings and that they use the shanties only for sleeping. While
many of them no doubt when at home live under such conditions
of overcrowding as are common in the poorer sections of large cities,
such congestion as that in the camp barracks is seldom found even
in the most crowded slums. A study some years a go7 of typical
housing conditions in Jewish, Italian, and Negro quarters of Phila
delphia, for example, revealed the fact that in 21 per cent of the
families there were more than two persons per room, proportionately
less than one-third as many as the migratory families included in
the present study who were overcrowded to this extent. A study
of room congestion made by the Children’s Bureau in connection
with the study of Philadelphia school children migrating to farms8
showed also that of 485 of these migratory families, 12 per cent, were
crowded when in their Philadelphia homes to the extent of three
or more persons per room, proportionately only about one-fifth as
many as the migratory families who were living three or more persons
per room in the New Jersey area studied. Although most of the
workers occupy the camp houses only from four to eight weeks
and spend most of their waking hours out of doors, living quarters as
overcrowded as were most of those provided for migratory families
in the areas studied are undesirable for growing children. The
mothers’ assistance fund of Philadelphia would not grant mothers’
pensions to families migrating to the truck farms on the ground that
the crowded conditions in the country were bad for the children.
Room congestion in the camps was often intensified by lack of
closets and cupboards and by clothes hanging on walls and dishes
7Craig, Frank A.: A Study of the Housing and Social Conditions in Selected Districts of Philadelphia:
Eleventh Report of the Henry Phipps Institute, p. 64. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1915.
8See pp. 42-52.
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W O R K OF C H IL D R E N O N T R U C K A N D S M A L L -F R U I T F A R M S .

and food everywhere; neatness in such small quarters was out of the
question. Cleanliness was demanded in only a few camps. In these
the requirement was that rooms must be scrubbed once a week,
offenders being fined. Garbage in one camp was fed to hogs and in
another burned, but in most it was thrown out about the camp.
Waste water was disposed of in the same way. Few of the buildings
were screened, but some of the families had improvised screens by
stretching cheesecloth over the windows.
None of the camps had plumbing, but all had privies, their kind
and condition varying in the different camps. Often the padrone
was held responsible for their condition, in which case they were
usually well cared for, but otherwise nobody felt any responsibility
for their cleanliness, and they were filthy. There were not always
a sufficient number of privies; one camp housing about 300 pickers,
at the height of the season had only three toilets; another with a
population of 59 had only two. The water was considered good in
all except one of the camps, where it was obtained from a dug well
which had been polluted by dead animals. In the field, however,
drinking water was a problem; some farmers had it sent to the workers,
but on other farms the workers themselves had to carry it to the field
or drink ditch water, which, though possibly pure at the source,
could easily have become contaminated b y the time it reached them.
In several of the larger camps a nurse was provided who was at
the camp and on call at all times. All cases of sickness were immediately isolated and a doctor summoned.

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SUMMARY.
Most of the children who work on the truck and small-fruit farms
of southern New Jersey are Italian or of Italian parentage. Some
live on or near the farms where they work, but during busy seasons
others come with their families from Philadelphia and near-by New
Jersey cities. Of 994 children reported as working on the farms in
the districts included in the study somewhat more than one-half were
migratory workers. The remainder were the children of small-farm
owners or tenants in the neighborhood or of laborers on the larger
farms, or were village children in the vicinity engaged as farm laborers.
Half the local children interviewed worked for wages. Farmers’
children, and to some extent other local children, do a variety of
general farm work; but migratory children and most of those in the
locality who are hired for farm work are hired only for picking fruits
and vegetables. Migratory workers come into the area chiefly to
pick cranberries and strawberries.
The need for some legal restriction on the age at which children
may be employed on the farms and for some limitation of their hours
of work would seem to be indicated by the facts revealed in the study.
About three-fourths, both of the local and of the migratory workers,
were under 14 years of age; 43 per cent of the former and 47 per cent
of the latter were under 12; and one-fifth of those in each group were
under 10. A notable proportion— 27 per cent— of the local children
reporting on the length of their working day worked more than 8
hours a day, including 23 per cent of the children working on home
farms and 34 per cent of the others. Of the migratory workers, also,
41 per cent of those reporting worked more than 8 hours a day.
Farm work caused much absence from school. Two-thirds of the
farmers children included in the study had been absent from school
for farm work 20 days on the average. Migratory workers suffered a
still greater loss of schooling. Of the children in migratory families
found in the area for whom school records were available, one-half
had lost 8,or more weeks from school, and 29 per cent had lost at least
12 weeks, on account of their migrations. The average «absence for
farm work among these children was 43 days. In a supplementary
study of the effect of migrations on school attendance it was found
that among 869 Philadelphia school children leaving the city for farm
work the average absence for this cause was between 15 per cent and
20 per cent of the school year. The majority of the children working
on the farms had failed to reach the average grade for their years: 57
per cent of the local and 74 per cent of the migratory workers inter
viewed in the New Jersey districts were retarded in school. Of the
57

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W O R K OF C H IL D R E N ON T R U C K A N D S M A L L -F R U I T F A R M S .

Philadelphia migratory workers included in the supplementary study,
71 per cent were retarded. A comparison of the school progress of
the migratory workers in Philadelphia schools and other children in
the same schools, whose social and economic background was prob
ably similar to that of the migratory families, indicated a close rela
tion between irregular attendance and slow school progress.
Although the compulsory school-attendance law of New Jersey
does not exempt children from attendance for farm work, the enforce
ment is in the hands of local attendance officers, and experience has
indicated that in order to insure effective enforcement of schoolattendance laws in most rural communities county or State super
vision is essential. The enforcement of school-attendance laws in
respect to the children who go to southern New Jersey for seasonal
farm work is especially difficult. The school authorities in Phila
delphia, the city from which most of the workers go, are powerless as
soon as the children leave the city, and the local officials in the farm
ing communities do not assume responsibility for the education of the
children temporarily under their jurisdiction. ^Inasmuch as the
workers cross State boundaries Federal action may be found to be
necessary in dealing with the situation.
The housing of migratory labor also presents a problem. The
accommodations offered the workers on the truck and small-fruit
farms visited in southern New Jersey were in some respects superior
to those provided in other districts where the Children’s Bureau has
investigated the housing of seasonal agricultural laborers.1 Most of
the buildings were in good repair, and some privacy was assured by
the fact that each family had at least one room to itself with a sepa
rate entrance; in a few of the camps sanitary conditions were good,
and in one or two a nurse was employed to enforce sanitary regula
tions and to isolate and care for persons who became ill. In most of
the camps, however, no provision was made for the disposal of garbage
or of waste water; and in some toilet accommodations were inade
quate and privies were insanitary. Even in the best camps rooms
were small and room congestion was very great. In over one-half
the migratory families interviewed there were at least three, and in
over one-fourth at least four persons per room. Several States,
notably California and New York, have State regulations in regard to
the housing of seasonal farm laborers. In the absence of any such
State supervision the character of the accommodations" provided
naturally varies with the attitude and resources of the individual
farmer.
1See Child Labor and the Work of Mothers in the Beet Fields of Colorado and Michigan, U. S. Children’s
Bureau Publication No. 115, pp. 65-69,115-119; Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, U. S. Children’s
Bureau Publication No. 123, pp. 25-29; and Child Labor and the Work of Mothers on Norfolk Truck Farms,
U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 130, pp. 3-6.

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