Friday, September 5, 2014

Friday Farming: Itinerant farmers. October 1913


Been sort of a grim week, labor wise, here, eh?  Well, to finish out the week on that them we have this, for our Friday Farming feature.
"Renters." Itinerant Texas farmers who rent a farm for a year or so and then move on, giving them nomadic habits and everything is temporary. House unpainted and ill-cared for. The children from five years old upward pick cotton and help with the farm work, but get little or no schooling. It is estimated by State University that 300,000 children are thus affected in Texas alone. See Hine report Texas. Beginning with the five year old girl here who picks some, all work including the women. The nine year old girl picks one hundred and fifty pounds a day. Father is in town. Farm comprises fifty acres and they get about twenty bales of cotton, this year which is not a good year. Been here one year. Farm of J.W. Vaughn. Route 6. Location: Corsicana, Texas.

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