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^& lawn Carolina State Library The E. S. C. Quarterly /OLUME 17, NO. 3-4 SUMMER-FALL, 1959 FARM PLACEMENT EDITION, (See Inside Front Cover) INDEX ON PAGE 93 PUBLISHED BY Employment Security Commission of North Carolina RALEIGH, N. C. PAGE 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 19591 The E. S. C. Quarterly CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS (Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly) Vol. 17, No. 3-4 Summer-Fall, 1959 Issued at Raleigh, N. C. by the EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF NORTH CAROLINA Commissioners : Mrs. Quentin Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Maurice Van Hecke, Chapel Hill; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; W. Benton Pipkin, Keidsville; Bruce E. Davis, Charlotte; Crayon C. Enrd, Albemarle. State Advisory Council: Public representatives: James A. Bridger, Bladenboro, Chairman ; Sherwood Roberson, Rober-sonville; W. B. Horton, Yanceyville; Mrs. R. C. Lewellyn, Dobson, and Dr. J. W. Seabrook, Fayetteville; Employer representatives: A. L. Tait, Lincolnton and G. Maurice Hill, Drexel; Employee representatives: Melvin Ward, Spencer, AFL and H. D. Lisk, Charlotte, CIO. HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman R. FULLER MARTIN Director Unemployment Insurance Division JOSEPH W. BEACH Director North Carolina State Employment Service Division TED DAVIS Editor Public Information Officer, Member PRSA MARTHA JACKSON Associate Editor Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies, organizations and libraries. Address: E.S.C. Informational Service, P. O. Box 589, Raleigh, N. C. INDEX APPEARS ON PAGE 93 ABOUT THE COVER PICTURES T"ie two top pictures show the dual-jobs of Mayor Wesson O. Batchelor, of Sherpsburg. N. C. At left he is shown aboard his tractor on his farm an i at right at the controls of a National Guard helicopter prior to a refine training mission. Story is on page 40. Center left is shown a view inside the missile plant of Douglas Air-craft in Charlotte. Story on page 55. Csrtter right is the new AEROTRON plant which is being built on U. S. Hhhway No. 1 just North of Raleigh where two-way mobile radios are being built. (Page 70). Bottom left shows Farm Placement Interviewer D. H. Bunn, Migrant C-ew Leader Ace Evans, cucumber grower N. N. Ellis, Faison, and Farm P cc»ment Interviewer Albert Hickman. On the right is a mechanical bean picker at work on the farm of Wi!ey Long, Jr., Garysburg. Covering two rows at a time, this harvester eas:.y picks as many beans as 100 pickers each day. Henry E. Kendall, Chairman Employment Security Commission One of the most interesting stories in Employment Security! is that of the work done by our Farm Placement Interview-) ers and Supervisors. Working long hours during the harvest seasons, these men go at such a steady pace that we oftenj fear for their health. KtNDALL Mrs. Martha F. Jackson Named Associate Editor On the right is Mrs. Martha F. Jack-son, Associate Editor and Secretary to the Public Information Officer of the Employment Security Commission. Al-though she has been doing editorial work for more than a year, we have just gotten around to recognizing her efforts official-ly with a title. Mrs. Jackson has been in the PIO office fcr a little over three years, but was formerly doing stenographic work. In her new position she edits articles sub-mitted for publication, writes stories on commission activities and industries, and handles the photographic department's production for the engravers. ASSOCIATE EDITOR JACKSON Each of the men assigned to Farmi Placement believes so thoroughly in the work he is doing that when he is askedj about activity in his area it is almost asi though he were Coleridge's "weddingj guest" reincarnated. He feels he musljl tell you all the wonderful things aboulil his section. The zeal and enthusiasm witrj which he describes the program stemsl from his belief and faith in what he anc | his colleagues are doing. He sees eacljl day what to many of us is a hazy picture interpreted inadej quately, but unintentionally, by some media. The overall workings of the Farm Placement Service is so complex thaj it is almost impossible to cover all its facets. Who can do justice in words alone to an acre of straw berries which yields a $1000 net profit to the grower; or drought which ruins thousands of acres of tomatoes in single week? What photograph can tell the complete stor; of a celery harvesting machine which requires 60 people h operate it and which harvests 24 rows of celery at a time How do you do justice to describing 19 consecutive days o rain which rots nine out of every ten stalks before it can bi harvested? What words can describe the thrill felt by a farr placement interviewer when he learns that despite the eld ments which destroyed half the harvest that the growerj plan to plant even more acreage in the crop next year? Coul you adequately describe your feelings after you had leane over to examine a head of lettuce only to find your fac within inches of a deadly rattler? No one has completely delineated the vast and expandin farm placement story. With this in mind, the editors aske the farm placement people to write their story. For most c them, writing is hard work, especially when it has to be don late at night, on weekends and at odd times between jo orders. While we think of all our ESC people as being con petent and interested in their work the intense interest Fan Placement Workers have in their jobs makes them seem jus a little more dedicated in purpose. Your particular attention is directe to the chart on the next page. Shown ai some impressive ascending figures ( Farm Placements. 1959 bodes to top a previous records. Electronic manufacturing firms a? also being featured in this edition of Tl E.S.C. Quarterly. There is a comple list of these firms in this edition ai manufacturers outside the State & showing more interest in electronic d velopments. Newspapers carrying the colun "N. C. Job Picture" which I write ea week are also included in this issue are some of the leading manufacture] of farm equipment. Every industry listed in this editi contributes to the support of the E ployment Security Commission progra It is a pleasure to have a part in pi senting them to our readers "in prin SUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 3 Farm Placement Is Big Business For North Carolina Employment Service Recruiting labor for harvesting North Carolina's money crops is a momentous task. With no control over prices paid for labor, Farm Placement Interviewers and Supervisors must recruit for all who ask for the service. They are concerned only with getting the workers to the farms when they are need-ed. All contracts are made between the workers and the farmers or growers. Sometimes individu-ally, often through UMSTEAD Crew Leaders who are paid by the grower and these lead-ers in turn settle with the individual laborers. Riding herd over this tremendous op-eration, which stretches from Manteo to Murphy at the far ends of the State, are two old-timers in the Employment Service. With some fifty years of expe-rience between them, Farm Placement Supervisor Raymond P. Umstead, and Assistant Farm Placement Supervisor Curtis B. Gilliam, keep in touch with every man in Farm Placement by phone, personal contact, and weekly reports. Coordinating the reports and corre-spondence is Mrs. Sylvia Ballard, sec-retary to these busy |men. More than place- Jments were made on GILLIAM |the farms of North Carolina last year by the Employment Service. This is an imposing figure, but it grows more significant when consideration is given Ito the fact that Farm Placement Inter-viewers and Supervisors not only had to recruit these work-ers, but perform many other minor tasks as well. For in-stance, when trans-portation was being furnished by a Crew Leader, they had to inspect the truck or bus to see if it met certain safety re-quirements ; check lousing for migrants; contact crew lead-ers on a moment's notice when crops matured faster than had been anticipat-ed; recruit whole crews of laborers and Joordinate their activities with harvest-ng operations according to the need, and uccession of job orders; keep tab on nticipated need for out-of-state migrants nd the harvest dates of the various rops; and work as many hours as need-jd, knowing that it would be impossible 3 take "compensatory" time for the BALLARD The N. C. Farm-Industrial Relationship **$• By David Garrison, State Labor Market Analyst, ESC In 1940, just prior to World War II, one-third of the employed workers in North Carolina worked in agriculture. Ten years later, the 1950 Federal census showed that the relationship between the State's agricultural ] employment and to-tal employment hadj changed rather sharply—only one of f every four employed ] Tar Heels was work-ing on the farm. During the 1940-1 1950 period, farm I employment in non- 1 agricultural indus- 1 tries soared upward by more than 306,- j 000 workers. There * are numerous indi-cations that these same trends have con-tinued since 1950 and that the 1960 cen-sus will point up further widening be-many hours of "overtime" involved in Farm Placement activities. FPS Umstead and Asst. FPS Gilliam worked right along with the men in the field, often driving a hundred or more miles "before work" in order to be "on the scene" when needed. The articles which follow may not be great writing in the sense of deathless prose, but the editors challenge you to find a more intensely interesting story, told by people more dedicated to their work. GARRISON tween the State's agricultural and non-agricultural workforce totals. Declining farm employment in North Carolina, as throughout the nation, is primarily an outgrowth of improving technology and scientific progress. These factors have contributed to vastly in-creased production of farm commodities with fewer and fewer workers. Farm output per man hour in the United States is estimated to have doubled since the pre-World War II period. This increased production—and in many instances over-production— has led to the programs for price supports, acreage curtailments, soil bank plans, and other governmental programs which have had a direct curb-ing influence on farm employment, par-ticularly among tenants, sharecroppers, and unpaid family workers. Still another important factor which has contributed to the farm employment decline in North Carolina has been the relatively low economic status of many Tar Heel farm workers. According to the 1954 Census of Agriculture, there were almost 800,000 persons working on North Carolina farms in October of that year. This total included around 209,000 family workers who received no real wages for their labor. Approximately 90,500 hired workers were employed on 30,000 reporting farms, but only about 13,500 of these workers were classified as full-time or regular farm hands, the remainder being employed on a part-time or seasonal basis. Slightly over a third of these 90,500 hired workers were paid daily wages which averaged $4.65 for a nine hour day, while almost another —See INDUSTRIAL, Page 8— SEASONAL TREND OF AGRICULTURAL PLACEMENTS BY MONTH FOR YEARS 1955 1959 Thousands of Placements 180 Thousands of Placements 180 160 PAGE 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 PITT COUNTY GROWS 21147.27 ACRES OF TOBACCO ANNUALLY programs in an ex- AMERSON By A. D. Amerson Farm Placement Interviewer I Pitt County is the world's largest to-bacco growing county. There are 2724 tobacco farm owners with an allotment of 25,147.27 acres. In addition to tobacco; corn, cotton, cucumbers, and sweet pota-toes play a large part in this agricultural county's economy. The expanding agricultural in Pitt County have resulted panding Farm Place-ment Program to meet the increased and varied demands for seasonal and year - round farm labor. The largest de-mand for seasonal labor is, of course, in the harvest of to-bacco. This labor is procured from three sources: local, intra-state, and inter-state. Intra-state labor is that labor which is recruited within the state but out of Pitt County. Inter-state labor is that labor which is recruited in one state to work in another. There are four chief methods of pro-cedures in the recruiting of local labor, and these are: the use of NCSES-2406's, personal contact and follow up, contacts through Farm Employment Days, and through publicity. The NCSES-2406 (Yearly Community Visit Report) is a form which was devised for the purpose of recording information on groups of local workers. This form is com-pleted when a crew leader or group of workers are first contacted by the Farm Placement Interviewer upon his first con-tact with a crew leader or a group of workers. This form includes the leader's name, address, telephone number; the number men, women, and children who work in his crew, or the number that he, the crew leader, can recruit at a given time of the year; the number, if any, who are willing to leave home for the season, and the number of months that they are available to work away from home. The second procedure for recruiting local labor is by personal contact and follow-up. This procedure is probably used more than any of the others because better results are obtained. However, there are some instances when this meth-od would be impractical such as the re-cruitment of a large number of workers with a short time in which to do it. In such cases, loud speakers, radio, T. V., and newspapers are very practical and produce very good results. The third method of recruiting local workers are by contacts through Farm Employment Days. A Farm Employment Day is a day when applicants for farm jobs meet in either the local Employment Security Office or some designated place. Farm applicants are interviewed and farm employer orders are received by the Farm Placement Representative. The farm orders are matched with the farm applications and employers and appli-cants are given an opportunity to con-sult each other and their decisions are made known to the Farm Placement In-terviewer. The fourth, but by no means the least, method of recruiting local labor in Pitt County is through the media of Tele-vision Station, WNCT, Radio Station, WGTC, The Greenville Daily Reflector, The Grifton Times, and the Farmville Enterprise. Much credit goes especially to Television Station, WNCT and to the Greenville Daily Reflector in the fine co-operation they have given me in the re-cruiting of workers and the many other programs. There are several procedures for tak-ing farm orders. Principally, they are as follows : preseason surveys of labor needs, scheduling crews on NCSES-2408 (To-bacco Harvest Workers Schedule), mak-ing housing surveys on form NCSES- 2412, taking orders on ES-560-A's (Clear-ance Order For Seasonal Agricultural Labor), taking orders on NCSES-522 (Farm Order Form), order changes on ES-383's (Clearance Memorandum Sea-sonal Agricultural Workers), and com-pleting form ES-369 (Migratory Labor Employment Record) upon the arrival and departure of crews. Form FP-2 (History of Crews and Crew Leaders) is also completed upon the departure of a crew. Preseason surveys of labor needs are usually conducted during the late winter and early spring months. Consultations are held with the county ASC manager, Mr. Walter Hasty, the county agent, Mr. Sam Winchester, farm leaders, and var-ious farm groups. I am on the mailing list of both the county agent and the ASC office and am kept up to date on any changes or programs conducted by these agencies. From the ASC office, I obtain the allotments on tobacco, corn, peanuts, cotton, and wheat. Of course, there are no allotments on the various truck crops but reasonably accurate esti-mates can be made of these by consulting the county agent and the leading truck crop growers. Knowing the number of acres of each crop to be planted is a very good barometer for determining the a-mount of labor that will be needed. After Department of Agriculture offi-cials have been consulted, visits are then made to leading truck crop farmers, to farmers that used out-of-state labor the previous year to harvest tobacco, and to various farmers using the bulk of local labor in previous year. The farmer and I discuss his labor needs and orders are taken on NCSES-560-A's and on NCSES- 522's. During this time, appearances are made on Television Station, WNCT, Radio Station, WGTC, and all county newspapers are asked to run articles urg-ing farmers to determine their laboi needs and to let me have their orders as] soon as possible. Also, any person seek-ing a year-round job as farm hand oi tenant are asked to register with the I Farm Placement Interviewer. All ordersll for out-of-state tobacco workers art scheduled on NCSES-2408's and are for warded to applicant-holding states as soon as enough orders are received tc justify a crew coming in. Usually, out of-state tobacco crews will vary fron 30-50 workers. Some crews have come ir with as many as 100-115 workers bu' this is the exception rather than th rule. Smaller crews usually operate mori efficiently than the larger ones but some times circumstances force the Farn Placement Interviewer to schedule largji crews. For instance, in some cases enough out-of-state orders are not re ceived to justify two small crews t come in then they will be combined int> one large crew. In the event this hap pens, the crew leader is asked to furnisl a man to assist him in the supervisio: and transporting of the workers once i: Pitt County. After orders are received, it is detei mined if adequate and qualified local la bor is available to fill all the labor need; If adequate or qualified local labor i not available, then NCSES-560-A's aij completed and forwarded to labor suppl states, Florida, Alabama, or Mississipp Surveys are next made to determin if adequate housing and facilities ai available for recruited migrant worker Farm mechanization and cuts in tobacc allotments have forced many farm peop; to move into towns and cities in searo of other work leaving many farmer ten ant houses vacant. Housing presents ver little, if any, recruiting problems in Pi County. In addition to housing, farmei provide bunks or beds, mattresses, coc stove, lights, water, and toilet. Up unt this year, migratory housing was not i spected by the local health authoritie I am proud to say that one leadir farmer, in addition to providing tl standard facilities, also furnished whi sheets, pillow cases, refrigerator, and TV set. Farmers like this will never ha problems getting good workers Any changes in an order are ma< known to the applicant-holding stat(| who in turn notify the crew leadei| These changes are made on form E 383, (Clearance Memorandum Season Agricultural Workers.) There are t\ changes in an order that occur more fil quently than others and these are ad<H tions or deletions in the total workeHlnj needed and changes in dates for ere, | |;'i to arrive. ; I'l'J SUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 5 An ES-369 (Migratory Labor Employ-ment Record) is completed on every crew upon their arrival and departure in Pitt County. This form includes the crew leader's name, address ; telephone num-ber; social security number; total num-ber of individuals; individuals under 16; number male and female individuals over 16 years of age; total number of male iand female workers; number of families; number single men and women; type of jcrew; number trucks, busses, and cars jfor hire; and the pattern of employment (in which the past, present, and future employment is given; also beginning date; name and complete address of grower; and crop activity. Copies of the ES-369 are distributed as follows: 1 copy to local office from which workers come, 1 copy to state office from which woi-kers come, 1 copy to regional office, 1 copy to Raleigh office, 1 copy to next state of employment, 1 copy to Farm Placement Interviewer II, and 1 for files. A daily operational procedure will con-sist in recruiting and referring workers, supervising day-haul activities, checking with growers to insure that workers are getting full employment as agi'eed by the grower and that workers are per-forming standard work. Often, I am called upon to act as mediator between op picture shows housing for migrant workers in Carteret County which has not been improved, other ion to keep it in livable condition. The middle photo shows migrant housing built specifically as ving quarters for seven families. It has plumbing and cross-ventilation and is also located at eaufort, in Carteret County. The bottom photo shows concrete block duplex apartments in the oanoke Rapids area. This is the type housing growers are being encouraged to build. growers and workers on such things as housing and facilities, methods and rates of pay, S. S. tax deductions, and a million other things. When a crew or group of workers have completed their work commitments and have departed for the next area of em-ployment, a Form Fp-2 (History of Crews and Crew Leaders) is completed on them and copies are distributed to interested parties. This form will include the name and address of the crew leader; a statement as to whether crew was re-cruited for N. C. ; number workers in crew upon arrival and departure; make-up of crew; number men, women, and children; number trucks and cars; area worked in N. C.; names of principle employers number days in area and num-ber days worked ; whether field work or grader work; whether workers housed in central camp or growers quarters; next employment area, next employer's name and date next employment is to start; a rating of excellent, good, fair, or poor on the general qualifications, in-cluding cooperativeness, dependability, and efficiency of leader and workers. The crew leader is rated on his supervising ability and the employer's appraisal of the workers and crew leaders are also recorded. Next to tobacco, cotton harvest re-quires the largest amount of labor and only local labor will be used in this ac-tivity. Last year, one small East Coast Migrant Crew, recruited to harvest sweet potatoes, was used two or three days to pick cotton in order that full employment be insured them. Procedures in recruiting labor to harvest cotton consist in making pre-season labor surveys and surveys of cotton growers which have already been discussed. NCSES-2406's are screened to determine the number of cotton pickers available, where available, number and types of transportation available, and the organized groups available. These individuals are contacted and placed with cotton growers as orders are received. I have found it to be an invaluable source of information on cotton pickers, to stop, whenever a group of workers are spotted picking cotton and get the name and address of the group leader, if there is one, and I don't already have it or the name of a person through whom the given number of workers can be con-tacted. Bethel, N. C. is the center of the truck crop area in Pitt County. Vegetable crops grown in this area include cabbage, cu-cumbers, sweet potatoes, plants, white potatoes, and string beans. The procedures for recruiting labor to harvest truck crops are basically the same as any other crop. First, pre-season surveys are made of the number of acres of each vegetable crop to be planted. In many cases, it is already known, long before crops are planted the number acres and kinds of vegetable crops plant-ed because of contracts and visits with truck crop growers the previous year. —See TOBACCO, Page 8— PAGE 6 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 CARTERET UTILIZES YOUTH PROGRAM TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL FARM LABOR ,• GORDON By Hugh C. Gordon Jr., Farm Placement Intv. Seasonal Beaufort Farm Labor Office, Beaufort, North Carolina The Beaufort Mobile Farm Labor Of-fice, which operates under the Morehead City Local Office, has two Youth Pro-grams in operation, the Agriculture Youth Program and Odd-Jobs-Club. The Carteret Coun-ty Youth Agriculture Program is organized in the Farm Place-ment Service to em-ploy the many youths that have been idle during the summer months here in Car-teret County and to build up a local sup-ply of labor. In order to make contact with prospec-tive agriculture youth workers it is neces-sary for the Farm Placement Interviewer to visit the schools each spring and familiarize the students with the pro-gram. Schools in Carteret County par-ticipating in the program are: Beaufort High School, Morehead City High School, Newport High School, Queen Street High School, and King Street High School. This year Swansboro High School in Onslow County is included in the pro-gram. This includes both white and col-ored schools. Another pre-season activity concern-ing the program is the Farm Placement Interviewer informing the public of this agricultural program. This public rela-tions activity is done through local civic organizations, Parent Teachers Associa-tions, Future Farmers of America, 4-H Clubs, local school boards, school officials, Vocational Agriculture Classes, Cham-bers of Commerce, radio and newspapers, and various athletic teams. With this type of public relations procedure the idea is to get the program across to the public and to solicit their support of the program. The actual recruitment of youth work-ers first begins with distribution of pam-phlets by the Farm Placement Inter-viewer throughout the county to the var-ious schools. These are taken home by the students so the parents will be cor-rectly informed of the objectives and aims of the program After the pamphlets have been in circulation for a few days application blanks are issued to students interested in the program. On return of application blanks to the respective schools the blanks are col-lected by the Farm Placement Inter-viewer or mailed by the principal of the school to the Beaufort Mobile Farm Labor Office. Many interested youths are interviewed at the Mobile Farm Labor Office or incidental places where youths meet. Also youths who have registered in the program secure applications for other youths and help them enroll in the program. In the Beaufort Mobile Farm Labor- Office we have two files set-up, which act as a basis for all the youth place-ments under this program. One file is called the Youth Worker File, the other, the Youth Employer File. The Youth Worker File is set up on a 3 by 5 card. Each youth registered has a file card. This card contains the youth's name, address, his class in school, age, sex, whether he possesses a driver's license, past farm work experience, date of regis-tration, and a place for the Farm Place-ment Interviewer's remarks. The remarks section gives any other pertinent infor-mation on the youth. His work perform-ance after he is placed is also noted here. The Youth Employer File is also set-up on 3 by 5 cards. These cards contain the names and addresses of the employers who have been contacted by the Farm Placement Service and have indicated and are interested in working youths or are working youths and have agreed to cooperate with the Farm Placement Serv-ice's Youth Program. The Employer File also contains the following information: type of crop the youth will work in, the kind of equipment they will operate or work around, and space for remarks. News and Observer Farm Editor Bill Humphries listens as Mrs. Beebee, Carteret County blue berry grower depicts her operation. Farm Placement Interviewers Hugh C. Gordon and John D. Lilley standby to explain their work to the journalist. This remark section contains any other pertinent information on the employer and also Farm Placement Interviewer's comments on the employer's relations with his youth workers. This information is gained by interviewing some of the youth workers who have worked for this employer and by observing the youths while working on the employer's farm. Two paramount problems in expediting the Agriculture Youth Program in rela-tion to field work is transportation and supervision of workers. The most feasible method of transportation used for youths is a day-haul program. The Farm Place-ment Interviewer works with the em-ployer to see that all youth workers are transported in vehicles meeting required specifications for safe and orderly move-ment to and from field and pick-up sta-tions. In regards to the problem of super-vision an effort is made to secure a Group Leader when work involves a number of youth workers. This Group Leader is well screened according to his leadership qualities and knowledge of the farm work to be done. Usually this Group Leader is recommended to the Farm Placement Interviewer by his principal, Agriculture Teacher, or farm employer. Crops which call for youth placements are beans, blueberries, tomatoes, and to-bacco. Blueberries involve the largest number of youth workers with tobacco a close second. Beans and tomato crop placements are less than the other two mentioned. Beans, in a normal season are practically all harvested before school session is over but there has been some youth placements in beans. Tomatoes on the other hand provide work for grading in regards to youth workers and not so much for picking. Tomato picking re-quires a certain experience in knowing which tomatoes are ripe for picking that most of the local youths have not ac-quired. It is important that the tomatoes are picked so as to stand up under ship-ping conditions. This year from March 13th to July 10th a total of 571 youth placements have been made in the harvest of blue-berries, tomatoes, tobacco, and general farm work. The pay scale for the youth workers is in most instances the same as the pay for adult labor where the same work is done. The farmers are willing to pay sub-stantial wages for youth work and in many instances they actually prefer the younger workers. The farm employers seem very appreciative of the youth workers and will continue to use them in seasons to come. The Odd-Jobs-Club is the other youth program available for the Carteret Coun-ty youths through the Employment Se curity Commission of North Carolina. This program is coordinated with the Agricultural Youth Program and its pre-season planning is similar to the Agri-cultural Youth Program. A different registration form is used in registering youth for the Odd-Jobs Club. Members in the Odd-Jobs-Club have expressed interest in the following type of work: retail grocery clerk, retail va-riety store clerks, key punch operator general office clerk, typing, file clerks waitresses, handyman, (yard and repah work), salesman, delivery boy, baby sit ter, service station attendants, tractoi drivers, clothes presser, cook's helper theatre attendant, fish house worker women's clothes sales clerk, carpenter'; —See YOUTH PROGRAM, Page 8— SUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 7 INTERVIEWER I NANCE HAS BIG AREA, GROWING NUMEROUS CROPS By Paul Nance Farm Placement Supervisor I The agricultural area served by me is a varied one with many types of farming and many different crops grown. One area is devoted extensively to the grow-ing of various truck crops. Another area is primarily tobacco that is generally owner-operated, while another area is mainly the growing of tobacco by Ten-ants or Sharecroppers. This part of the state is well known for the production of Corn, Soy Beans and Lespedeza which are harvested for seed. The Farm Placement Program in this area is in a constant state of change to keep pace with the ever changing agri-cultural employment patterns within the area. My work area is ' the Southern half of Beaufort County or that part lying South of the Pam-ilico River, the ! Northern part of Craven County or jthat part of the [county lying North lof the Neuse River. JThe Bayboro section lof Craven County is nance (served during the (peak harvest period from May 15 jthrough August each year. The truck farming area served grows a variety of crops such as White Pota-jtoes, Snap Beans, Cucumbers, Peppers, Cabbage, Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, Sweet Potatoes as well as other truck crops in lesser acreage that are grown on a com-mercial scale. There is a large acreage planted to Flue Cured Tobacco in this section. The tobacco planted is generally allotted in comparatively small acreages. Many of the smaller tobacco farmers handle their crop with their own labor or on-the-farm labor while other growers have tenants or sharecroppers that han-dle a good portion of their acreage on a share crop basis that may vary in differ-ent sections. There are many types of Sharecropper agreements and each grow-er and each Sharecropper or tenant work out their individual agreement that may be a verbal agreement or it may ba in the form of a written contract. Each year during the month's of No-vember, December, January and Febru-ary Farm Employment Days are ob-served and this is limited mainly to the areas where much of the tobacco grown is handled on a sharecrop basis. The pur-pose of these days that are held at a designated place the same time each week is an effort to get the prospective tenant or sharecropper and the farmer or land-lord together and match, as nearly as possible, the tenant that is qualified and has the potential to handle a particular tobacco farmers needs. The actual bar-gaining and hiring is left strictly up to the Landlord and tenant. Special recruitment programs are many and varied. During any time of peak need whether for this state or some other state special recruitment programs are launched to get workers in large numbers in a comparative short time. This recruitment is also done in various ways such as Direct Recruitment, con-tacts by the use of Public Address Sys-tems in areas of concentrated labor po-tential, through Crew Leaders or any other method that is deemed advisable at the time. Each year at harvest time a Farm Labor Office is set up in or near the center of the area of greatest need. This is done during the harvest season when workers are needed in large numbers to handle the needs during the peak harvest of the various truck crops grown in the area. With all the progress in agricul-ture, improvement in machinery and methods of harvest this work is mainly performed with hand labor which neces-sitates large numbers of workers during this period as all truck crops are perish-able and the time limits of harvest vary slightly with the different crops. Many factors directly affect the time and num-ber of workers that are needed in any crop harvest. Crop conditions, weather, market conditions and many other things make this an ever changing picture so far as labor requirements are concerned. For instance, a grower with 100 acres of Snap Beans that are all ready to pick at one time, 1000 bean pickers could be used to an advantage on that particular day and the grower would not have a surplus of labor. In an area such as this where Cabbage, Snap Beans, White Po-tatoes, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Sweet Corn and other truck crops are produced there is no such thing as a balance between supply and demand of labor only for very short periods during the peak harvest. This balance between supply and demand for workers is what the Farm Placement Interviewer is striving to attain. Even though he knows this will happen only occasionally for a short period of time this is the challenge that makes him work even harder trying to achieve that which seems always just beyond his reach. These short periods of balance between supply and demand can mean much to a Farm Placement Man in the feeling that he has been partially respon-sible for getting the right numbers of workers at the right place and at the right time. I feel that much more satis-faction is derived in capturing the very elusive for short periods of time than could ever be experienced in doing a job that was more predictable. It may be truthfully said that each day brings many new challenges and it is so true that during the peak harvests there is never a dull moment. I sincerely believe that it is this constant change and chal-lenge that keeps the good Farm Place-ment Man striving to reach that which seems to constantly remain just beyond his grasp. The labor picture is changing as fast as the agricultural program and this alone is one thing that makes the keeping of records most important. All available qualified workers are first contacted and when it is determined the number of local workers or labor in a commuting distance available for the particular need it can be determined with a good degree of accuracy the amount of out-of-area or out-of-state labor that will be needed to supplement the available local labor. Acreages vary greatly from year to year making it necessary to make pre-season contacts of all growers to deter-mine their needs for the coming year. A housing survey is made to determine the availability of adequate housing for any migrant or out-of-area labor that will be housed on the respective farms during the harvest season. A review of the His-tory of Crew Leaders will help to deter-mine which crews will be asked to return to this area. These crews are contacted personally or in the case of the Migrant Crew Leader they are told by written correspondence the approximate acreage, size and conditions of housing, dates of harvest, number of workers and trucks that will be needed and many other things that help him to arrive where he is needed, when he is needed with suffi-cient workers and equipment to handle the respective job for which he has been selected. Upon the arrival of a crew leader in the area a 369 form is filled out giving much information as to size of crew, number of male and female woi'kers, number of trucks available, employment dates in this particular area as well as much other information that will be valu-able in the next state or area of employ-ment. This form is mailed to the next state of employment, just prior to the completion of his work agreement here a revised 369 is mailed to the next state of employment to keep them informed as to any change in plans or makeup of the crew. There is an excellent working relation between the Farm Placement Men of this state thus making it possible and feasible to transfer workers from areas of lesser needs to the areas of greater need on a commuting temporary or seasonal basis as the need demands. Pre-season planning and determination of labor needs to handle any given crops at a particular harvest is of prime im-portance. During a harvest with strong demand and good prices a larger number of workers for a shorter period of time are needed than would be the case in a season of poor demand and poor prices when the harvest may be slowed down appreciably. This of course varies in each —See BIG AREA, Page 12— PAGE 8 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 TOBACCO —Continued from page 5 — Determining- the amount of labor need-ed to harvest truck crops is simplified by the fact that only 2 or 3 growers comprise the major truck crop growers in Pitt County and the largest of these, Mr. L. N. James, lives in Bethel. On peak days, Mr. James will employ from 75-100 workers. With day-hauls out of Tarboro and local labor, usually 1 or 2 migrant crews are used in Bethel to harvest the truck crops. This year Mr. James planted 100 acres of cucumbers, 50 acres of cab-bage, and 120 acres of sweet potatoes. One crew of Indians from Pembroke, N. C. and one migrant crew from Florida were recruited to assist in this harvest. Two returning crews of East Coast Mi-grants will be used to assist in the sweet potato harvest. These crews will also be used to supplement local labor in the peanut and cotton harvest if the need should arise. During the harvest of truck crops, constant checks are made with growers and workers to insure that work-ers have full time employment and to insure that standard housing and wages are furnished as agreed in the work agreements. If all workers are given full time employment, the Farm Placement Interviewer's job is made much easier but if they aren't, then I have to try and find employment for them. In many cases, the growers will assist me in finding work for the workers. Usually after tobacco markets close and during the months of November, December, January and February orders are secured for year-round tenants, and general farm hands. Referrals are made to farm employers from farm applicants who registered for jobs with the Farm Placement Interviewer. Applications on workers, are accomplished by the use of NCSES-511A (Farm Application Card.) Farm application cards are screened to match a particular order and if no suit-able applicant is registered, then positive recruitment is conducted until the order is filled. After screening application cards and one is found that matches the farm order, an interview is arranged between the farm applicant and farm employer. After they consult with each other, their decisions are made known to the Farm Interviewer. To facilitate and speed up the filling of farm orders for year-round tenants and farm hands and to place as many applicants as possible. Farm Employment Days are held. These are held during the months of Nov., Dec, Jan., and Feb. In 1958-59, Farm Employ-ment Days were held at the following places. On Mondays and Fridays, at the INDUSTRIAL —Continued from page 3- third worked by the hour for an average wage of 56 cents per hour. Workers em-ployed by the week received an average of $30 for a 46 hour work-week, and monthly paid farm workers averaged $115 for a 200 hour work-month. The State's farming economy has been cited as primarily responsible for North Carolina's low standing in per capita in-come ranking among the states. This is understandable since North Carolina has the heaviest farm population of any State in the Union and since this large population derives its income principally from small farms—82 per cent of which consist of fewer than 100 acres. Only about 22 acres of land are actually cul-tivated on the average North Carolina farm. North Carolina's non-agricultural econ-omy, however, is not altogether blame-less for the State's low per capita income ranking. Figures released recently by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that production workers in North Carolina factories earned an average wage of $56.26 a week during 1958—the lowest earnings level of any state in the Union; yet, in 1958 North Carolina rank-ed 10th among all states in the total number of manufacturing workers em-ployed, 464,000. The relatively low earn-ings average of factory production work-ers in North Carolina is attributable mainly to the fact that over 72 per cent of the State's manufacturing employment is concentrated in industries producing nondurable goods. Nationally, only about 43 per cent of all factory workers are employed in nondurable goods industries. Wage rates in North Carolina's nondur-able goods industries compare rather favorably with the rates paid in the same industries of other states, but North Carolina just happens to have more of the traditionally lower-paying industries. Unfortunately, the State does not appear to be making as much progress in wage gains as the country as a whole. Although average weekly earnings of manufactur-ing workers in North Carolina advanced by $7.92 between 1953 and 1958, nation-ally the increase amounted to $11.81. Pinched and prodded by rising living costs, many farm workers have dropped the plow and have headed for the nearest factory, warehouse, store or other places where a better living might be afforded. Some of these workers have been suc-cessfully absorbed in North Carolina's expanding nonagricultural economy, but others have found it necessary to leave the State to seek and find work. A substantial number of workers in North Carolina, however, are "dual job holders", earning their livelihoods both on the farm and off. Data from the 1954 Census of Agriculture indicates that roughly forty per cent of the State's 268,000 farm operators do some off-the-farm work each year. Of the 110,700 —See INDUSTRIAL, Page 69— Employment Office in Greenville. On Tuesday, from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon at the City Hall in Bethel. On Wednesdays from 10 a.m.-12 noon at the City Hall in Farmville and each Thursday from 10 a.m. -12 p.m. at Smith-Douglas Fertilizer Company in Grifton. Farm Employment Days were given publicity through the use of posters, newspapers, radio, and television. Posters were posted through-out Pitt County in such places as FCX Stores, P. O. Buildings, Gen. Farm Sup-plies and Implement Stores, Feed and Grain Mills, and country stores. Through newspapers, radio, and television, farm-ers are urged to place their orders with the Farm Placement Interviewer as soon as possible to be assured of better service. In addition to placing applicants and filling the farm employer's labor needs through the use of Farm Employment Days, there ai-e also other values of this system. New sources of labor are found both seasonal and permanent, and good public relations can be had with em-ployers, business people, and labor. The increased demands in Pitt County for seasonal and year-round farm work-ers has resulted in an expanded Farm Placement Program in both the seasonal and permanent farm worker fields. YOUTH PROGRAM —Continued from page 6 — helper, general housework, painter's helper, and stock clerk. A file for Odd-Jobs-Clubbers and Agri-cultural Youth Workers is kept on all youths who register. Since the Odd-Jobs Club serves to bring many youths intc the agricultural program an applicatior form NCSES 511 is used. A health form is attached to each NCSES 511 and il requested by applicant he can receive a free medical examination at the Countj Health Clinic. The Odd-Jobs-Club operates yeai around and special projects are carrier out by the club for groups of youths ir the various schools. One special project carried out through the Odd-Jobs-Clut this year enabled the eight grades oj Morehead City High School to earn $10( in their efforts to secure money foi an educational trip to Chapel Hill, Nortl Carolina. Forty three students partici pated in this special project and jot openings consisted of mowing grass tc sitting with the sick. Publicity througl the radio and newspapers helped to in form the public of the special projec and they responded quickly by telephon ing in request for youth workers. Specia projects such as this is planned, organ ized, and carried out by the Farm Place ment Interviewer. Morehead City and close-by Atlanti Beach, being resort areas provide man; seasonal jobs for which local youths ar< available. The Odd-Jobs-Club is a mean —See YOUTH PROGRAM, page 12-! UMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 9 IWO WINSTON-SALEM FARM MEN TOUCH EIGHT COUNTIES IN THEIR WORK BOWLES The Winston-Salem Farm Placement Program consists of many tangents, cov-ering a large area: Forsyth, Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin counties plus fringe ireas of Rockingham, Guilford, David-son, and Davie counties. The area covered :>y Farm Placement representatives Bar-ow J. Bowles and Ivey W. Singletary (part time represen- ^^ :ative) represents a ive - local - employ-nent- office-area su-jervised by John G. Harris. Farm Place-nent Representatives Bowles and Single- ;ary are under the lirect supervision of Assistant Far m Placement Supervis-or, Curtis B. Gilliam, ivhen on Special As-signment and John H. Wilson, Jr., Man-iger of the Winston-Salem local office at ither times. The Winston-Salem office is he local administrative headquarters for he Farm Placement Program in this irea. Special assignments are made dur-ng harvest seasons. These special as-ignments are located in Danbury, Stokes "ounty and East Bend, in Yadkin bounty. The Farm Placement Program was tarted in this area in 1946 by the Em-doyment Security Commission as the jieed for farm workers began to rise in jhe early post war period, coupled with he increasing number of out-of-area and ut-of-state farm workers that were corn-rig into this section of North Carolina eeking temporary employment on the bcal farms during peak harvest periods. fo the present time, the Farm Program as expanded into a gigantic year around jperation. Following is an outline of ctivities and services rendered by the peal Farm Placement representatives : | I. Organization of Farm Program. A. Plans 1. Agriculture activity needs in: a. tobacco, b. fruit, c. vegetables, d. small grains; 2. Community and employer relations; 3. Pub-licity; 4. Housing; 5. Recruit-ment; 6. Placement: a. Year around worker, b. Seasonal work-er, c. Canadian tobacco workers. B. Application of Plans C. Achievement. Plans are completed as nearly as pos-ble for one year in advance for the rogram conducted by the Farm Place-ment interviewer, Bowles. j Agriculture activities are primarily in >ur categories, tobacco, fruit, vegetables, id small grains. Tobacco: The chief money crop in the :ea is tobacco, some 55 thousand acres irrently being grown in the area on i)Out 15 thousand farms of which ap-oximately five thousand farms receive lee services rendered by Farm Place-ment Representatives. Anticipated tobac-co labor needs are based on past require-ments for workers and the number of acres expected to be planted. Fruit: Fruit crops in the local area are chiefly apples (approximately one hundred thousand trees), peaches (ap-proximately thirty thousand trees), and berries—including improved and native blackberries, strawberries, and dewber-ries. Demands for berry pickers fluctu-ates as to the need for berries in local canneries and processing plants and the quantity of the crop. Crop conditions and quantity govern the needs for workers in apple and peach crops. With normal sea-sons, needs are determined from past seasonal experience and market forecasts. Vegetables : The vegetable crops in-clude potatoes, tomatoes, sweet corn, cab-bag" e, and beans. Few commercial vege-table farms are located in the area, there-fore, accurate predictions of labor needs are difficult. Vegetable crops for commer-cial purposes are expanding each year due to the rising cost of living and more farmers realizing the need for diversifica-tion. Small Grains : Small grains have been on the up-climb in the number of acres grown. Approximately 140 thousand acres are currently grown in the area. Labor needs, as in other crops, are deter-mined by past records and market condi-tions, combining crews have been set up to harvest smaller acreages for farmers who do not grow enough grain to merit the purchase of this expensive harvest equipment. Community and Employer relations: Community meetings are set up for em-ployers to discuss the free services that are offered by the farm representatives of the Employment Security Commission. Employers are urged to make their plans for labor as soon as possible. Employers are told what to expect of the worker and what the worker expects of him in re-gard to housing, transportation, and gen-eral working conditions. Farm Placement Representative Bowles is active in many community projects such as: Northwest Development Association, Farm Bureau, Grange, Agriculture Council, veterans organizations and churches. Publicity: Farm Placement publicity is obtained by newspapers (6 in the area), television and radio stations (two and nine stations respectively), and com-munity acceptance of the good services rendered. Housing: In the early spring of each year, we determine the number of houses that are available for the farm workers. At the present time, there is no public housing unit that can be obtained for this purpose, therefore, the depending upon vacant tenant houses results in an acute shortage of living quarters for these farm workers. These houses have to meet certain specifications before these workers are allowed to use them. Work-ers are transported from their living quarters to farms by crew leaders. Farm Labor Recruitment: This job is always a big one in this area but so far, we have won this battle. Our emphasis is placed on community understanding. We make our people feel that our first thought is for them. That is why it is so important that jobs are offered to the local workers first and that everyone is made aware of the fact that these jobs are to be had and they are urgently wanted for them. When we bring in out-side workers, we must again convince our local people that these workers are here only because they are needed in our har-vest and these outside workers are vitally important to our community. We also tell our local people how important it is to make our outside workers welcome. Local recruitment for the planting season is done in the early spring. These workers have usually had past experience in this type of work. The recruitment program continues through the apple harvest in October. Year Around Workers: Of all the types of farm labor shortages, that of the skilled worker remains the most diffi-cult to meet. These workers who have had farm experience are encouraged and assisted to return to agricultural work. This is never easy and becomes particu-larly difficult in areas where these work-ers have been able to get higher paid jobs elsewhere. The tenant family and the hired workers make up most of the farm workers in this area. Beginning in July and continuing through March, tenant families are looking and inquiring for larger acreage and better farms for themselves and their families. The hired worker is always looking for more money and better living conditions. Under this year around program, we hold our Farm Employment Days December through March. These Days are arranged in win-ter to enable the farmer and year around farm workers, tenants and sharecroppers to g-et together in order to match the right worker with the right farm open-ing. These Days are spread out over the entire area at pre-arranged places and are advertised through radio, newspapers and posters. Last year 179 tenant fami-lies were placed as a result of these Farm Employment Days. Placements for hired workers totalled 181 for the same period. Seasonal Workers : Seasonal workers are chiefly required in the harvest of the local tobacco and apple crops. These per-sons are recruited from Mississippi, Ala-bama, South Carolina, Virginia, and var-ious areas in North Carolina. Upon com-pletion of their work in this area, they return to their own homes. These seasonal workers arrive in crews of 35 to 50 peo-ple supervised by a crew leader. These crew members are scattered each day in regard to their work location, due to the small acreage of the farms. An average —See FARM MEN, page 12— PAGE 10 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 CROPS AND THE FARM LABOR PROGRAM IN SAMPSON, SOUTH JOHNSTON AND SOUTHEASTERN HARNETT COUNTIES By J. Scott McPhail HBHHHH McPHAIL Throughout this area, which is the heart of the State's trucking section, sev-eral different crops are grown and a lot of farm labor is used. Much of this labor is obtained through the facilities of the Em-ployment Security program to carry on the necessary farming operations of these crops. The pre-plan-ning and organiza-tion in the obtain-ment of the neces-sary farm workers to be placed on farm jobs involves a great deal more than is conceived by most persons — excluding those connected di-rectly with the Farm Labor Division of the Employment Se-curity Commission. Pre-planning for and actually placing farm workers on farm jobs begin about the first or middle of November and •extends through the next year. During the winter months, a farm employment schedule is made and carried out by set-ting up itinerate points to be visited one day each week. Farmers and farm em-ployees are informed of this schedule through the media of radio, correspond-ence, newspapers, posters, volunteer farm placement representatives, and other per-sons and agencies connected with farm-ing in this area. The itinerate points are visited by farmers and prospective farm employees. Orders are written from in-formation given by the farmers and ap-plications are written for all farm appli-cants. In most cases, suitable applicants are referred as needed—depending upon the availability of the applicants. The primary purpose of the employment days is to place sharecroppers and year-round farm workers on farms ; nevertheless, many orders are taken requesting sea-sonal workers. Farmers, local labor lead-ers, and individual farm workers are visited before and after the itinerate commitments each day. Pre-planning for the referral and placement of seasonal harvest workers consumes much of the farm interviewer's time in March and April. This pre-plan-ning consists of farm visits, crop and housing surveys, tobacco meetings, pub-lic information programs, correspond-ence, and completing orders for inter-state farm workers. Local seasonal farm workers are recruited for Florida's citrus harvest from December through March. The number of workers recruited and referred depend upon the number of job openings received from Florida. Most of the placement work done in the aforementioned counties is for sea- Above is the typical migrant housing tor McPhail's area. Houses are renovated to serve as migra ) housing in many cases. Growers are going to the more up-to-date housing built primarily for migratii 1 farm labor. sonal harvesting of the various crops grown in them. These crops include strawberries, dewberries, blueberries, snap beans, cucumbers, irish potatoes, corn, pepper, squash, tomatoes, egg plants, cabbage, asparagus, okra, peas, lima beans, melons, tobacco, cotton, sweet potatoes, cane, peanuts, small grain, soy-beans, and turnips. As can be seen, this is a highly diversified farming area. Poultry and livestock workers are also placed on jobs within this section. The harvest activities carried on in this area are continuous—beginning in April and ending about December. Our harvest sea-son opens with the picking of strawber-ries and ends with the cotton, sweet potato, and soybean harvest operations. Major crops grown in this section are tobacco, cotton and corn—at least most farmers think so. However, many farm-ers are leaning more and more toward successful truck farming. Just a few years back most farmers who grew truck crops would harvest them until the tobacco harvest season began. Then, they would discontinue gathering the truck crops completely (re-gardless of the condition of the truck crops—at peak season or whatever) and totally bury themselves in the tobacco barning activities. One factor responsible for such a poor farming practice was the farmers not knowing where or how to obtain supplementary labor to carry on their trucking and tobacco harvest operations at the same time. The relatively new concept of harvest-ing several different crops during the same period is a rather common practii now. The Farm Labor Section of Tl Employment Security Commission < North Carolina is more responsible fi this accelerated progress than any oth farm agency or even the farmers thei selves. Farmers in this area say that tb will not even attempt to plant certa 1 crops until we of the Farm Labor Offi in Mt. Olive assure them of adequa labor to house those crops. Anoth change made by many farmers, is th of doing their own farming rather th; dealing with sharecroppers. Again, t North Carolina Farm Labor program § rendered considerable assistance in ms ing this possible by the referral a: placement of year-round farm worke to those farmers who prefer doing the own farming. The farm interviewer in carrying the multiple tasks which are essential a good farm labor program lives a uniq I style life. His work begins, on ma days, while most people still sleep. Di ing the middle of the day he is accus of never working because at that "till he has already put in a day's work aT takes time out for a short breath | Again when most folks are preparing quit work at four or five, the farm inti viewer is beginning to put in anotl | half day before the day ends. In course of this day's work the FPI 11 taken crews of farm workers to fa employers; changed a crew from (| farmer to another due to effect of verse weather ; mediated disagreem —See LABOR PROGRAM, page 12- ,UMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 1 Southern Wayne, Duplin, Pender And New Hanover Highly Diversified By Albert D. Hickman Farm Placement Interviewer I Diversified farming, or the planting of many different types of crops to supple-ment farm income, being in an area where the soil is suitable for the growing of truck crops, having many auction mar-kets including the South's largest at Clinton, N. C, and having the state's top poultry producing county makes the .Farm Program a full-time, year-round activity in the area. Work during the year at the Farm Labor Office is usually worked in con-junction with the farm pattern that growers use in the area. At the beginning of each new year, an annual plan of work, or schedule, of the next year's activities is made out for the area. This is an outline, or estimate, based on the previous year's activities and our ideas of the work load for the coming year. The activity which utilizes most of the time during January, February, and March of each year, is Farm Employment Days, or Farm Employment Clinics. These Farm Employment Days have been found by the Farm Placement Service to be lone of the best ways of placing year-round farm labor. For this reason, all lover the entire area itinerary points are jset up; usually in places throughout the area which are most likely to be visited by farmers during this time of year, such as County Agent Offices, ASC Offices, feed stores, hardware stores, and country stores located in certain sections of the area. The purpose of establishing Farm Em- Dloyment Days is to bring together em-ployer and employee at the same time so ;hat they may talk things over. Workers ind farmers will convene at the same ocation, date, and time, where on-the-spot hiring may be accomplished. Farm-ers needing year-round workers or work-ers needing farm jobs can meet at cer- ;ain itinerary points set up by the Farm abor Representative, for discussion of )otential farm job openings. Over the /ears it has been found that Farm Em- )loyment Days save considerable time and work out employment problems wiftly to everyone's satisfaction. The greatest advantage in establish-jnent and success in Farm Employment )ays is advertisement—letting the farm-rs and workers know of your plans, rour organization, and the importance f Employment Days. Harvest operation, although not as ;reat this time of year as other times, to e successful is carried out in the usual rocedure. No out-of-area or migrant abor is used during this period. Harvest perations consist of leafy vegetables or 'reens, and flower bulbs. Local crew lead-rs ana day-haul labor is used entirely his time of year. This labor is available ) growers because of the organization of crews and crew leaders with or with-out transportation by the Farm Place-ment Representative. This is done any time during the year when a responsible person, or above the average individual is found that is experienced in handling-labor, knows the harvest operations, and has the ability to get along with and supervise labor. Once this type individual has been contacted, a permanent record is made out on him showing the days and months available, the number of workers that he can haul and supervise, trans-portation facilities, and address. This is one of our most important phases of Farm Placement, as we organize our labor supply—produce a dependable labor supply and reduce unemployment in the area by using local labor. During the months of April, May, and June, pre-harvest operations and the ac-tual harvest operations receive the full time of Farm Placement. Pre-harvest operations usually begin with farm visits to employers who have been helped by the Farm Placement process before, the operation is used mostly to find out and adjust labor operations, for the harvest season. Orders for labor are written, acreage surveys are made, and all infor-mation necessary to determine the esti-mated amount of local labor, intra-area labor, inter-state labor, and migrant labor to supplement our own state's labor to be needed for harvest operations. At this time, a housing survey is made through-out the area and pictures are taken of houses to be used to house our labor supply. This is done to promote better housing in the area, better equipment, and better living conditions for our sup-plement labor supply. Improvements in housing can be seen one year over an-other as the pictures labeled then and now tell the story. After all orders have been written and all surveys made, Clearance Orders for seasonal agricul-tural labor are written up. After utiliz-ing all available local labor, inter-area labor and intra-state labor that can be assured of for harvests; then, orders are written for supplement labor from our neighboring states of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Missis-sippi to be used in our harvests. These orders are taken to Florida by our Farm Labor Representatives designated to at-tend the annual pooled interviews of eastern seaboard workers in Florida. Most of these orders are filled by these Representatives. Harvest operations begin around the 20th of April, under normal conditions, with strawberries. Most all the labor, ex-cept two or three migrant crews for berry harvest, is local and day-haul labor from our own area. Labor is referred and placed by the placement process. Commercial vegetable harvest starts in the area with snap beans in May and continues with cucumbers (long green and pickle), white potatoes, sweet corn, —See DIVERSIFIED, Page 12— Farm Placement Interviewer Homer Bunn, Crew Leader Ace Evans, Grower N. N. Ellis, FP Supervisor Jim Hunter and Albert Hickman, exam a basket ot cucumbers just picked near Mount Olive. (Lower) Crew works quickly up rows of cukes harvesting basketfuls as they go. PAGE 12 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 BIG AREA —Continued from Page 7 — type of harvest operation as some crops are of such a nature that they must be harvested within a two or three day pe-riod or they are unfit for market. In the event of a labor shortage during any period the Farm Interviewer will first contact all available local crews or groups in an effort to supplement his labor with local labor or labor within a commuting distance. Other Farm Place-ment Interviewers may be contacted that are in a reasonable distance and addi-tional labor is often arranged for through them to take care of the present needs. Special recruitment efforts are often pur-sued by using public address system, direct recruitment or any other method seeming practical at the time. In the event of a labor surplus in this area, Farm Placement Interviewers in other areas are told of this surplus, if they are needed in other areas efforts are made to move them into the area or areas of greater needs. This particular area has unusually good soils for the growing of commercial truck crops and it is my belief that only the surface has been scratched. Various truck crops are taking the place of some acreage that has been devoted to the growing of potatoes and with a more diversified planting and growing pro-gram of truck crops it appears that the demand for out-of-state or out of area labor will steadily increase for the next several years. YOUTH PROGRAM —Continued from Page 8 in which to give a service to the employer and to the youth desiring an odd job. Also the Odd-Jobs-Club is an aid in se-curing vocational employment on farms for town and city boys who are interested in agricultural work and particularly town and city high school boys who in-clude agricultural work as an elective study in their school courses. LABOR PROGRAM —Continued from Page 10 — between employer and employee; given free advice to everyone about every-thing; consoled disgruntled farmers and crew leaders; prepared forms and re-ports and correspondence; checked on referrals made that day and prepared schedule for the following day. There are always new and different problems arising in the farm labor pro-gram; therefore, new methods and a great deal of discretion must be employed by the farm labor interviewer to solve these problems. Sometimes, seemingly unorthodox methods have to be practiced in order to keep the program operating on a constructive basis. DIVERSIFIED —Continued from Page 11 — pepper (green and red), squash, toma-toes, egg plants, lettuce, cauliflower, blue-berries, and dewberries. During the har-vest season of commercial vegetables is the time when the work load is the heav-iest. It is at this time that our tobacco harvest starts in the area, before our harvest operation of commercial vege-tables is over. By the over-lapping of our harvest seasons in the area, it becomes necessary for the tobacco harvest to again call upon some other source of labor to supplement our own labor. This is done through a well organized working agreement with the state of Mississippi. Preliminary work for this harvest starts during* the first three months of the year. An estimate is made of acreage and labor force needed to determine the amount of supplement labor needed, un-der normal conditions, for the tobacco harvest. The Mississippi State Office is informed of the estimated number of workers to be used in this harvest from their state. Tobacco harvest crews usual-ly come into the area around July 1st to July 4th for about six weeks of work in the tobacco harvest. Cotton harvest season usually starts around September 10th in the area and unlike the other harvest in the labor force needed, unlimited numbers of work- FARM MEN —Continued from Page 9 — of 3 to 6 members are used per farm. During the peak season 850 to 900 out of area seasonal workers are employed along with 1200 to 1400 local seasonal workers. Canadian Tobacco Harvest: In this area, there are approximately 600 to 700 curers and 300 to 400 primers and string-ers who go to Canada each year to help in the Canadian tobacco harvest which, in most cases, we interview and issue their Border Passing Permits. For a period of six weeks prior to the workers leaving for Canada, we spend a third of our time talking to the workers that do go and the ones that would like to go that don't have the chance or never re-ceive orders to come. These workers sel-dom go to Canada in groups or crews. Usually they are individually selected by local Farm Placement Representatives. Application of Plans: The actual ap-plication of plans are adhered to as much as possible, however, due to weather and crop conditions, the plans have to be altered from time to time. Achievement: The Farm Placement Representatives compile all available data in regard to actual achievements that are made during each month. The Farm Placement Program is spoken of, by the farm employers, com-munity organizations, and business exec-utives, as a service that cannot be meas-ured by dollars and cents but by the yardstick of family, community, and busi-ness relationship and progress. ers can be used effectively in this harvest. By the close relationship of growers and ginners in the area, it has been found that considerable money can be saved for each if the harvest season is over before our winter weather begins to cover the area: During the fall and winter months, as our harvest seasons in area are over, we have openings in Florida to send our sur-plus labor for work. This requires quite an extensive program of visiting concen-trations where labor is plentiful, pub-licity, and the actual loading of workers on buses for the sunny South. The Farm Placement Program in the area throughout the year is to help oui I farmers and farm workers in the area I To do this, communication is a very im-jl portant factor in carrying out and mainjl taining a successful Farm Program. Thfjj farmer and farm worker must be tolc I of the Farm Placement services offered I They must be told of how this servicql can help them secure work and the neces| sary labor for harvests. This is don< through several ways. Radio and televi sion are two of the most important publij city means utilized in the area. Announ cements are made and in some instances slides or movies are shown of workers iij the fields or women working- in process ing plants. Newspapers are used ex tensively, as this is one of the best way to reach the farmer, the worker, an the whole community. Everyone read| the newspaper and Farm Labor news ca reach people rapidly through the press The editors of newspapers in the area ar kept in contact with and told of the need] of farmers, or news releases are printe that are of interest to both farmers an farm workers. One of our greater: sources of communication is the coir) munity organizations within the are;' Some of which are the local Grange Farm Bureau, P.T.A., Civic organiz tions, and service clubs such as Kiwani Rotary, and Lions, all of which play part in the program. Community organj zations are helping young people, hous' wives, and students to go out and he with the harvests. Remember, peop would not be in many of these organiz tions if they were not civic minded, the Farm Placement Representative c make them understand his problems, th<[ will try and help him to solve the protj lems. Speeches, when given by the Far Placement Service in the area, cover broad field of action. Speeches are mat before civic groups, clubs, or in mai cases, where a group of interested pej pie can be gotten together, and it offe1 the best way to explain the problems the area. Posters, placed in designated parts the area, play an important part in o Farm Labor Program. Posters are us for several occasions, such as recruitme| program, seasonal and year-round woi ers. Posters are used to designate Volt teer Farm Placement Representatives, —See DIVERSIFIED, page 14— I SUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 13 ayefteville FPI Works on Getting Job Done Where it Will do the Most Good Historical Fayetteville, located in the heart of the Cape Fear Valley, about one hundred miles upland from Wilming-ton, N. C, is also the site of the local office of the Em-ployment Security Commission, serving Hoke, Harnett, Sampson, and Cum-berland Counties. Agriculturally these counties are made up of many units of family size farms, growing some varie-ties of most crops which are grown on POPE the east coast of the United States. The local office, under the manage-ment of S. T. Cherry, has one farm place-ment representative working directly out of the office who is familiar with the territory and crop activities over all the area. This representative is Wiley 0. Pope, who was born, grew up, and still resides on a farm and is in a position to know the farmers' problems first hand. He works full time with the farmers and farm workers, visiting, talking, and offering his services at every opportuni-ty. The Employment Service is vitally in-terested in the well being of the farmers and farm workers in the area and is making every effort to render services which will benefit them, as well as in-dustry; realizing that a progressive rural community is a must where surrounded by thriving industrial activities. Since most of the farms are operated by ten-ants and on-the-farm operators, labor demands are not so great until harvest begins when a tremendous step-up in de-mand is noted. Getting the job clone where it will do the most good is the aim of the farm placement service. At the beginning of the year contacts are made with the workers and growers. Data of major crop acreages, potential labor needs and avail-able housing is collected. Farm visits, personal interviews, employment days, newspaper, radio and other media is used. Through the spring months, while the crops are in the planting stages, farm visits are continued for the purpose of keeping current on crops planted and their condition. Orders for year-round workers, tenants, and day hands are con-tinued to be taken, applicants interview-ed, and referred to job openings. Tenta-tive orders for migrant crews needed at a later date are discussed, and recorded for future use. Daily, weekly, and month-ly reports are kept current. Seasonal harvest work starts in late spring. Recruiting, referring and place-ment begins in a big way. Day haul pro-grams are put in operation. Migrant crews arriving are placed in housing provided, family groups and individuals referred to job openings. A first hand picture of current needs is kept at all times by farm visits and personal inter-views. Information gathered from mer-chants farm organizations and other sources is compiled. This is late spring harvest, known as the fruit and vege-table season, when snapbeans, irish pota-toes, cucumbers, strawberries, dewber-ries, and peaches are being harvested. From mid summer through November harvest in tobacco, cotton, corn, and sweet-potatoes are at their peak. A tre-mendous supply of labor is required dur-ing this period. All available workers, local and migrants, are on full time sche-dules. The service is taxed to its limit to meet the demands, recruiting, re-ferring, follow up visits for purposes of verifications are at the peak of the years heaviest loads. With the completion of harvest, a breathing spell is partially realized. With only routine work such as orders for tenants, day hands, dairy workers, and other jobs related to agriculture are taken and interviews with applicants and referrals are made. Employment days, personal interviews, newspaper, and radio announcements are again used for this purpose. A new mode of farming is beginning to shape up in the area which could have some effect on the pattern of farm operations from the old. It is known as CONTRACT FARMING, a relatively new name in agriculture—but apparent-ly here to stay. It is increasing yearly in the Fayetteville area. Claims as to advantages and disadvantages are de-bated among producers. Some claim the risks involved in selling on the open market Avith fluctuating prices are being eliminated for a more protected, though in some cases, lower prices. This, they point out, enables them to plan and fit their operations and expenses to a more secure source of income. Others say con-tract prices reduce profits so low that operations cannot be justified; however, be as it may contracts are negotiated yearly in hogs, poultry, and several vari-ties of vegetables, between producers and processors. Labor requirements for livestock and poultry are small. Vegetable harvest is an entirely different matter, since most work is done by hand and requires a tremendous amount of labor during the busy harvesting season. The largest acreage of this type in the Fayetteville area is snap beans, grown under contract with H. P. Cannon and Sons, Inc. They are a large and well known food processor with headquarters in Bridgeville, Delaware, but with a fast growing and thriving branch plant lo-cated in Dunn, North Carolina. This plant is under the management of Roy V. Tew, a local, energetic, young man of the area. This plant was established principally for pepper processing, the raw products being grown under contract in small tracts within a twenty-five mile radius of Dunn. Snapbean contracts are furnish-ed as a supplement to this crop. Unlike pepper, contracts for beans are usually limited to a minimum of ten acres per farm. The contract stipulates the farmer furnish land, labor, fertilizer, seed, and insecticides; also that he culti-vate the crop up to harvest. The proces-sor takes over from there, assuming the responsibility of harvesting and trans-porting to the plant for processing. The farmer is paid on a tonnage bases for his share. Due to the nature of the crop, labor must be available at a moments notice; therefore the processor requests experi-enced help in sufficient quantities to take care of the harvest when and where needed. Local workers have not proven satisfactory due to their inexperience and lack of qualifications, so aid from the Employment Security Commission through the farm placement service is requested in locating qualified workers who will assume the responsibility of the entire harvest operations. These workers are in groups under a crew leader, or supervisor, who follows the vegetable harvest yearly. This leader starts in Florida in early spring and works his way up the coast as crops mature, ending in the fall in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Upon receipt of an order from the pro-cessor for workers, stating number, date needed, wage rates, perquisites, etc., files are immediately checked for crews who can qualify. Contacts are made and in-terested leaders given job orders for consideration. If an agreement is reached, tentative plans are made to receive them on the date and time specified. Through the growing season, and up to maturity, crops are visited periodi-cally by the farm placement representa-tive. This is done because of changes that might occur from the original plans due to weather, insects, and various other things which at times effect grow-ing crops. A careful watch is kept at all times to help avoid loss of time or convenience to workers or employers. Should any-thing happen of a nature that would ef-fect the crop or working conditions, crew leaders are promptly notified by corre-spondence, telephone, or personal con-tacts. With the arrival of crews at harvest time immediate contacts are made with the crew leader. Orders are reviewed, housing checked for occupancy, work schedules arranged, and problems which might cause future conflicts ironed out. —See FAYETTEVILLE FPI, Page 17— PAGE 14 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 farmers of Beaufort FPI Says "Fan By: John D. Lilley Farm Placement Interviewer I Beaufort Mobile Farm Labor Office The Beaufort Mobile Farm Labor Office, Beaufort, North Carolina of the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina makes available Farm Placement Services to Carteret and Onslow Counties. This office is active all four sea-sons of the year. Winter work con-sists of pre-season planning with the grower, as well as supplying local and out-of-area workers to plant the spring cabbage crop. Hous-ing surveys and lilley housing programs, orders for year-around workers, and Farm Employment days carried out during the winter sea-son by the Farm Placement Interviewer. The spring season brings a demand for strawberry labor. This labor is recruited, as much as possible from local sources. To supplement the local labor a day-haul program from New Bern, North Caro-lina has been set up. One migrant crew is used to supplement these N. C. workers in the strawberry harvest. The number of migrant workers required is approxi-mately one hundred. The demand and supply for strawberry labor is kept in balance by using local, out-of-area, and migrant workers. Another crop to be harvested in the spring is cabbage. This harvest begins in late April and ends in June. This crop requires the use of out-of-area work-ers to supplement local workers in meet-ing the growers demand for cabbage labor. The Farm Placement Interviewer makes arrangements to secure nineteen out-of-area N. C. crews. This out-of-area labor comes from the following areas : Lumberton, Maxton, Laurinburg, Rocky Mount and Greenville, North Carolina. About five hundred per day are trans-ported through a day-haul program from the North River, Harlow, North Harlow and Mansfield areas of Carteret Co. It is also necessary to have several migrant crews scheduled for this harvest. They come from Florida and Georgia. The combined worker strength of these migrant crews is about 165. The snapbean harvest normally begins in May and ends in June. There are about six hundred acres of snapbeans grown in Carteret County. To meet the large peak demands for workers to har-vest this crop all day-haul programs are put into operation. During the bean harvest the day-haul programs produce nearly five hundred workers per day from the following areas: Harlow, North Harlow, Merrimon, North River, Mans-field, Bayboro, New Bern and James City. Over eight hundred migrants are also scheduled to harvest this bean crop. We have number of small bean growers so it is a problem for the Farm Place-ment Interviewer to have sufficient num-ber of bean pickers at the same time for all the different growers. In case the crop should fail, I must also be ready to move the workers to other work at once and not let a surplus of labor devel-op. Practically all migrant bean crews stay in the area and are used in the har-vest of white potatoes. The potato harvest begins in June and ends during July. All of our local potato crews have a full schedule during the potato harvest. How-ever due to the fact that our local labor is in such short supply we have to sup-plement their efforts with about twelve migrant crews. For each of the crews the Farm Placement Interviewer has to ar-range the work, housing, and scheduling details. The blueberry harvest presents a prob-lem in that one operation is in Beaufort In front of fhe Carteret County Mobile Farm PSacement ES office are: (L to R) WNCT-TV Photographer Lynwood Perkins, FPI Huqh C. Gordon, Jr., FPI John D. Lilley, Area Supervisor Philip Pollock, and News and Observer Farm Editor Bill Humphries. and the other is located at the other end of the county at Stella. In administering the day-haul programs for the blueberry harvest the Farm Placement Interviewer must plan with the blueberry growers well ahead of the harvest season. We extend our day-hauls for the Beaufort crop to Beaufort, Morehead City, Mans-field and New Bern. Labor for the Stella area is recruited and day-hauled from Belle Glade, Maysville and Pollocksville. The Agriculture Youth Program is used extensively in the blueberry crop when ever possible. Due to dry weather this past season the blueberry matured early and migrant crews were needed to help with the har-vest in the Beaufort and Stella areas. This is a growing crop in this area and we anticipate a steady increase in acre-age each year and a corresponding in-crease in the demands for labor. Approximately 100 acres of sweet corn were grown in this area and harvested by migrant crews. This crop for commer-cial use came at a time when local labor was employed in other crops, therefore the grower requested a migrant crew skilled in the harvest of sweet corn to do his work. Two hundred acres of tomatoes and one hundred of pepper were harvested by local adult labor, Agriculture Youth Workers, and migrant crews. Local labor and youth workers filled the bulk of de-mands in the two crops with migrants supplementing when market, weather conditions, or crop yield demanded more labor. The harvest of green tobacco begins in July and ends the last of August. This tobacco harvest requires out-of-area labor that is secured by the Farm Placement Interviewer, through Intra-state clear-ance with the Lumberton Office, from Lumberton, Maxton, Laurinburg and Pembroke areas. About 100 out-of-area workers are necessary to harvest tobacco in Carteret County and the lower part of Onslow County. Only local on-the-farm labor and intra-state labor is used in the harvest of green tobacco. Many Youths are also recruited to har-vest green tobacco through the Agri-culture Youth Program. After the har-vest of green tobacco some of the crews stay in for the harvest of soybeans, corn, sweet potatoes and peanuts. Normally this harvest is over about the 15th of December, which is when the cabbage setting starts for the spring crop of cabbage. In addition to the normal seasonal routine given I have to maintain four Farm Employment Day points per week in Carteret and Onslow Counties. These days are held through the months of November, December, January and Feb-ruary. The labor camp housing survey and labor housing programs also take considerable time as we have fifty-five labor camps in the Beaufort Mobile Farm Office area. The Farm Placement job in the Beau-fort Mobile Farm Office is a "thirteen month a year" job. Although it requires many long hours to keep up with the expanding program I enjoy meeting the challenge the work presents. DIVERSIFIED —Continued From Page 12-- to call to the attention of farm workers that jobs are available in nearby areas or states. Posters are used to tell school youths of summer vacation jobs, or wom-en for part time work, each stressing the chance to earn extra cash. The little black instrument on the desk called the telephone, is used to save val-uable hours and often can accomplish in a few minutes what would take days of correspondence. As a follow-up on news releases, letters, and announce-ments, it is a great aid. Meetings held throughout the area are one of the best possible means of ex-plaining the services of the Farm Labor —See DIVERSIFIED, Page 18— JSUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 15 NANCE SPECIALIZES IN HAVING THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT PLACE r*"» > NANCE supervision, and By Frank L. Nance Farm Placement Interviewer II The basic aim of the Farm Placement Interviewer II is the same as that of any other person in the Farm Placement Program. This is to see that agricultural employers have the right kind and amount of workers at the right time and 'that our North I Carolina workers tare kept as fully em-ijployed as possible. [A supervising Farm 'Placement Inter-viewer's duties fall {into three broad di-visions, functional (Supervision, direct jplanning and co-ordination. During normal operational procedures II have functional supervision over the [local office Farm Placement Program in [my area. I have had very good co-opera-tion from all the area supervisors and [office managers with whom I work. In keeping with the functional supervision jprocedure I discuss various farm pro-grams with the area supervisors, office imanag-ers and Farm Placement Inter-viewers concerned. I offer technical as-sistance and suggestions in interpreting land carrying out the various existing (regulations in the farm program and any new state or federal regulations that affect the farm program. We work to-gether in putting new operational forms and procedures into effect as they are (developed. I When occasionally the Farm Place-jment Program has to operate on a limit-ed time schedule and there is not suffi-cient time to operate through normal jchannels, then the local Farm Placement Interviewers concerned are assigned to my direct supervision. The area supervi-sors and the local office managers are jkept fully informed at all times as to the status of the Farm Placement Operations in their areas. Direct supervision enables us to coordinate the activities of our labor supply areas and labor demand areas on a tighter time schedule. Some-times we have only a few hours to fill emergency harvest orders for several hundred workers and normal procedure through channels would be to slow an operation. Direct supervision also enables as to utilize labor supplies more quickly and fully when needed as we can insti-tute special recruitment programs and set up new inter-area labor exchange operations on the spot wherever needed. In my Farm Placement Interviewer II activities the planning and coordina-tion phase falls into three parts : pre-season, in-season, and post-season. In the ore-season planning and coordination I ittempt to get a probable labor and de-mand picture for my area through the crop surveys and labor surveys made by local Farm Placement Interviewers. From the information thus gained I can determine, in all likelihood, where labor demands will develop and the time that they will occur. I also know the sources and amounts of local and intra-state labor that I will have available and at what times they will be available. After working out the probable labor demands and local and intrastate supply then I know roughly how much out-of-state labor will be needed for any particular crop at any time in any local office area. Then contacting the prospective labor source through the local office Inter-viewer I's is started. This takes the form of pre-season letters to out of area work-ers and personal contacts with the local workers. During this time housing sur-veys are also made to determine the availability of suitable farm labor hous-ing that meets local regulations. After the various supplies of labor have been organized and contacted throughout pre-season activities and the ; .::;** «•&;•; /,V: - ; •••;. - '- * ::W"Vi */..;-; ;- ". "-• 4.'. - * : "Quarterly" Editor Ted Davis (top) has his picture snapped in Irish potato field by News and Observer Farm Editor Bill Humphries as he pre-pares to take picture of a "field walker" (below) near Beaufort. out-of-area laborers have been moved to their places of employment and local dayhall operations are functioning, we are in our seasonal operations. In any seasonal operation there are just two basic procedures that have to be kept in balance. They are what to do when a labor shortage develops and what to do when a labor surplus develops. In most instances when a shortage develops there will either be an active labor source within my area that can ease the shortage or if necessary additional farm placement personnel are moved into a possible labor supply area and put on special recruitment programs until the shortage is alleviated. When possible they move mobile groups or crews of workers into the shortage area and house and work them there until the emer-gency is over. When a local Farm Placement Inter-viewer anticipates a surplus of avail-able labor in his area, or a surplus sud-denly occurs, he will inform me of the situation and I will put him in contact with an area that has a shortage or has a possibility of a shortage developing. When the surplus problem cannot be solved in this manner I sometimes have to institute a special employment pro-gram through publicity and personal contact with prospective employers to keep the surplus workers as fully em-ployed as possible. It is also my duty to attempt to antici-pate any future demands that will be made on the farm placement services of-fered in my area. These demands could come about through the introduction of new crops, new processes and harvesting-crops or new food processing plants locating within or near my area. It is also my duty to locate and assist in developing new labor supply sources in my area. I also assist the local office in keeping the public informed on the farm placement activities of the office. It is also necessary to keep informed on new federal and state farm programs that might affect the employment of agricultural labor in my area. I must keep informed on all the details on each local office operation because I have to replace, when necessary, any Farm Place-ment Interviewer I who has to be off duty when there is activity in his area. This sometimes poses a difficult problem when two men in different local offices are both out at the same time. Even though I have a wide variety of duties and in some instances long hours of work I still enjoy having a part in a vital and growing Farm Placement Program. Although my duties fall into three broad classes: functional super-vision, direct supervision, and planning and coordination their ramifications are many and varied. INDEX ON PAGE 93 PAGE 16 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 1 1 SMITHWICK Hyde County FPI Recruits Labor for B5- S. D. Smithwick, Int. I Washington Local Office A. Duda & Sons with home offices in Ovieda, Florida, have come to the Fair-field se:tion of Hyde County in eastern N^rth Carolina and are successfully growing celery and sweet corn on a com-mercial scale. This outfit is possibly the biggest celery grow-er in the world. Each year in Flori-da they grow and harvest thousands of acres of celery, sweet corn and other fancy vegetables. In recent years they have got in the production of citrus fruits and registered Brahman cattle. After ex-perimenting with some 10 to 20 acres of celery in the Bayboro section of Pamlico County, North Carolina, last year the Dudas moved into Fairfield this year growing some 80 acres of celery to be harvested as a summer crop during July. A little less than this amount will be planted to be harvested as a fall crop in late October or during November. The Dudas also grew some 200 acres of sweet corn this year. The celery and sweet corn harvest was carried on simul-taneously and it is believed at this time they will greatly increase the acreage planted to celery and sweet corn in the farming year 1960. This farming operation may some day rival the farming operations that were carried on in the same section some 35 to 40 years ago when northern capitalists drained the entire Mattamuskeet Lake with the second largest pumping station in the world and farmed its 30,000 acres of fertile lake bottom growing principally corn and soy beans but experimenting with a variety of crops ranging from rice to sun flowers. The Dudas do not propose to defy nature and again drain this huge lake. They can see the potential of the black fertile soil that surrounds this lake, a soil so high in organic matter that it has been known to catch on fire and burn for months. Over 100 square miles of fresh water in this lake affords un-limited opportunities for both ditch and overhead irrigation purposes. The soil acidity is corrected by heavy applications of lime, the fertility is maintained by plowing organic matter into the soil and adding some commercial fertilizer and the water table is controlled by hugh pumps that pump fresh water either in or out of the fields depending on the de-sires of the grower. A corrected soil acidity, controlled fertility and moisture, plus a favorable climate all add up to a favorable celery operation in this Mattamuskeet Lake section. The celery and sweet corn that Top picture shows celery harvesting machine in action, second shows two "field walkers" and Asst. Employment Service Director Ernest McCracken with Area Supervisor Phil Pollock and FPI Dennh Smithwick watching as the celery harvester turns around. Notice how celery has been taken from the field leaving only the outside and unsuitable stalks behind. Third shot is corn harvesting machine moving down road to next field. Bottom is closeup of corn harvesting machine in action. Note mer on top assembling shipping crates which move along a belt conveyor to truck which is coupled to am towed by the harvester. Machines are complete with refreshment stand and toilets. I SUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 17 is being grown in Hyde County is gener-ally closer to the consumer than that grown in Florida, thus giving the grow-er a decided advantage in freight rates. The summer crop of celery produced in this area is generally harvested and sold at a time when there is very little celery coming off any where else on the East Coast. The celery produced in the Lake section of North Carolina is of high quality and good yield and sold around $3.00 per crate and averaged much better than $2.50 f.o.b. shipping point. While we make good yields of high quality corn in this section, unfortunate-ly corn is being harvested north, south, and west of us at the same time we are harvesting our corn crop here. The plentifulness of green corn at this time usually has a great tendency to depress the sweet corn market. Most of the corn was sold for approximately $2.00 per crate f.o.b. Fairfield until the latter part of the harvest when New Jersey started harvesting heavy, this causing corn in this area to move at $1.50 per crate f.o.b. shipping point. We started harvesting celery in Fair-field June 29 and sweet corn July 5 and [carried on both harvesting operations simultaneously until the crops were har-vested which lasted until the latter part of July. It was necessary to harvest corn seven days to the week while there were two Sundays during the celery harvest-ing period that we were caught up enough that we did not have to work in this crop. Continuous rains for approxi-mately three weeks during July hastened and shortened the harvest season of both celery and corn and damaged some of the later crops of celery to such a degree that it was not even profitable to harvest some of the later plantings. About 80 percent of the celery grown this year in Fairfield was Variety 259-19 and 20 per-cent was Emerald and averaged from 700 to 900 crates to the acre while an javerage yield might be considered at 550 to 600 crates per acre. Practically all celery being grown at this time is of the green variety although several years ago only the bleached was in demand. Eighty percent of the sweet corn plant- 3d this year was Golden Security, a hybrid yellow and 20 percent was Wapan iwhich is also a yellow sweet corn. j Corn is usually packed 5 and 5% dozen :o the crate and occasionally is packed 4% dozen to the crate. Corn generally iverages 200-250 crates to the acre. This fear was an exceptionally good crop and an around 300 crates to the acre. One corn harvesting machine was used n the harvest. It requires a crew of ipproximately 40 people to operate this nachine. Sixteen rows are harvested at he time with 16 corn breakers and a ground foreman, 12 assorters or packers, this box makers, drivers, packing fore-nan, crew boss and checkers. A good rew will pack from 2,000 to 3,000 crates n a ten-hour day, depending on the mount of corn, length of rows and reather conditions. Sometimes a topping machine is used to cut off the upper portion of the stalk above the ear. In extremely hot weather this makes it much easier on the men that are break-ing the ears. The celery harvesting ma-chine was referred to by many of the Negro harvest hands as "mule trains." They are huge machines that require a crew of 55 to 60 people to operate one machine. These machines are wide enough that they harvest 24 rows of celery at the time with each machine. The celery is cut by 24 experienced workers called "strippers" that cut the celery off at the ground level which is below the stalk and above the root growth. These "strip-pers" use butcher knives to cut the stalk Asst. ES Dir. Ernest C. McCracken and Duda Foreman examine celery plants which are to be planted for second 1959 celery crop in Hyde county. Below Dani Davis collects an armful of celery too ripe to ship. and then strip off certain outside un-desirable stalks from the main bunch and place the bunch of celery on conveyor belts where the stalk goes by a topper or cutting machine that cuts the top of the stalk off making all stalks a uniform length. The celery then goes through a washer and comes out on a belt conveyor in the middle of the ma-chine. Eighteen experienced packers have to be able at a glance to determine how many bunches it will take to fill a crate. It is packed in crates according to size. The biggest stalks require 2% dozen to fill a crate and range to eight dozen to the crate for the smallest stalks. Each packer has a different number and is required to put this number on every crate and also the number of dozen of stalks of celery that are supposed to be in the crate is written on the box. Pack-ers have to be fast and accuracy is a must. A packer is allowed only three mistakes a day before they are set aside. The crates are hauled to the celery harvester knocked down, and placed on top of the machine and one man is fully employed making up the crates as fast as they can be filled. After the packers fill the crates a set-off man on each side of the machine sets the full crate of celery on another conveyor where two lace-up men close the crate by wiring the top down, and send it on to the back of the machine where it is checked and tallied according to the packer number and is loaded on a big truck that is coupled to the harvesting machine and is towed by the harvesting machine until it is loaded at which time it is cut loose and replaced with an empty truck. Then the loaded truck goes directly to the pre-cooler. Celery is cooled by running it through ice water and loaded on van trucks, iced down with snow ice and transported to the market. An experi-enced sales force of marketing experts does the selling of all this produce. It is sold to various buyers who distribute it to where it is consumed all over the nation. Sweet corn is harvested and handled very similar to celery. The corn harvest-ers are lighter than the celery harvesters as it is not necessary to equip the corn harvester with washers. After the corn has gone through the pre-cooler and has been loaded on the truck, it is necessary to ice it down with snow ice. A good day, harvesting with the two celery machines will pack 3,000 to 4,000 crates in a ten-hour day while the one corn harvester will cover from 6 to 10 acres a day and pack from 2,000 to 3,000 crates of sweet corn. The growing of celery and sweet corn on a commercial scale in Fairfield, North Carolina, this year has been successful and it looks at this time as if these two crops are here to stay. FAYETTEVILLE FPI —Continued from Page 13 — A typical work agreement stipulates that the crew leader transport workers under his control to the field and super-vise them in harvesting according to specification. For this he receives a fixed price previously agreed on by himself and the employer. This price is based on each unit his workers harvest. Out of this he pays the workers a percentage and keeps the balance to compensate for his responsibility. As the harvest progresses, daily con-tacts are kept with the producer and workers because of circumstances that might arise which would require help other than that housed in the labor cen-ter. Should this happen a day haul pro-gram is instigated in the local area for additional workers. In setting up this —See FAYETTEVILLE FPI, Page 18— PAGE 18 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL 1959 LUMBERTON FPI RELATES FOUR-SEASON OPERATION r .:::*-«-,, By P. C. Brooks Farm Placement Interviewer I The fact that I operate in an area that is a large agricultural labor demand area, as well as an agricultural labor supply area, causes my work to be de-manding in the local placement phase as well as the out-of-area recruiting phase. Due to the nature of the Lumber-ton office area we have an intensive Farm Program all four seasons of the year. The winter season is the starting sea-son for all the out-of-area recruitment. I make new contacts with available g-roups of labor and renew old contacts. These contacts are recorded on NCSES- 2406's for future use. I assist the lead-ers of these groups to organize their | ! workers and to se-cure transportation whenever possible. brooks During this period Farm Employment Days are also being held to promote the placement of year around workers and tenants. There is also some crop activity during the winter months as cotton pick-ing does not end until sometime in De-cember. This activity places heavy de-mands for labor on the local office. The chief planting activity during this sea-son is onion setting. The labor demands for this operation are also heavy. The employers want large groups of twenty-five to fifty workers with a composition of 85% women and 15% male. The onion setting operation runs through February into March. The winter season also brings on in-tensive recruiting programs to secure workers for both intra-state and inter-state referral. Workers are recruited and organized to take contract cabbage setting jobs in Eastern North Carolina. The wage, housing, and transportation details are worked out from the ES-560's and ES-383's received from the order holding office. We also recruit many workers for Florida to fill inter-state clearance orders. Both Indian and Negro groups are referred to both the intra and inter-state job openings. The spring season sees a continuation of the pre-season contacts with available labor. I also, am contacting the straw-berry growers in my area to ascertain how much and when they will need their strawberry harvest crews. I have quite a large inter-area movement of straw-berry crews as I bring fifteen crews from other parts of my area and have them housed and worked in the Chadbourn area during the berry season. We also work about one hundred South Carolina workers in the strawberry harvest. This amounts to a total of about four hun-dred workers from out-of-area working in the Chadbourn area during straw-berry harvest. At the same time the Chadbourn straw-berry deal is going on, I am carrying out the final recruitment procedures on the strawberry crews and cabbage cutting crews ordered by the Beaufort Mobile Farm office. These crews amount to about two hundred and fifty workers. While all the recruitment and referral work for both Chadbourn and Carteret County is in progress I still have the local demand for day-haul labor for the onion harvest. To satisfy the demands for onion labor during this period we refer up to one hundred and seventy-five workers per day. During the summer season of June, July, and August the harvest of green tobacco is my primary activity. The green tobacco harvest generally starts about the 10th of June and continues through the last part of August. During this period, I have recruited, organized and referred 35 to 40 tobacco crews. The total working strength of these crews equals about 500 persons. These crews are referred to both intra-area work as well as intra-state employment. I also, use about 150 South Carolina tobacco workers in the green tobacco harvest in the Columbus county area. The same crews are used in the tobacco grading operation during the summer season. During this period we also have the cu-cumber harvest. The demand for labor for the cucumber harvest is not very heavy but it is sometimes difficult to secure due to the intense tobacco har-vesting activity in the area. During the fall season, my primary activity is cotton harvesting. I have 40 to 50 crews each year organized to har-vest this crop in this area. The number of workers in these crews totals some 500 to 600 persons. This activity usually starts around the first of September and normally ends about the last of Novem-ber. In some cases, due to weather condi-tions or heavy harvest it has been known to continue through December. During this period we have a constant demand for workers in harvesting field corn. I also recruit, organize, and refer a few sweet potato crews to the eastern North Carolina offices. Our interstate referrals to Florida for their citrus harvest begin during the month of November with the referral of several hundred male workers on these Florida clearance orders. The number of different activities in my job as Farm Placement Interviewer I requires a great number of hours each week to keep abreast of them. My area at this time supplies a great deal of the needed seasonal harvest labor to other areas of North Carolina. However, I feel that the potential of this area has been for the most part untapped. This has not been due to lack of effort on my part but rather a result of having only twenty four hours in a day, and seven days a week. Despite the long arduous hours I have spent developing the Farm Place-ment Program in this area, I still enjoy I my work and I am proud to be a part j of a growing and expanding Farm Place- I ment Program. I DIVERSIFIED —Continued from Page 14- Office. Here the farmer is told directly |l his relationship with the Farm Labor I Representative and how he can be helped!! in regard to his labor supply, if he willi tell his requirements to the local office.il At these meetings, questions of farmers! and workers may be answered. Emphasis! I can be put on the scarcity of farm laborjj or other factors which might affect the labor market. By holding meetings in the area, the Farm Placement Representa-tive can be heard and seen by the farmers and workers, and in turn can answer their questions. The Farm Placement Service has made great advances, expanded and been re built in response to the demand of the times in the area. During this time, crop specialization, improved farm machinery and scientific farming have shortenec the harvest period of many crops. Or the other hand, crop diversification anc consumer demand have increased th< need for a more highly skilled type oJ farm worker. To meet the changing time; in the area, greater efforts are bein| placed on the improvement of working conditions, in the recognition that loca workers should always have first choia over out-of-area and migrant workers better housing and living conditions. Witl this in mind, throughout the area W' hope to expand, grow, and provide ; service to the farmers within our area FAYETTEVILLE FPI —Continued From Page 17 — program, workers in concentrated area are contacted, pick up points establishec and time schedules arranged for tran; porting workers to and from the field when needed. When it becomes necessary for a da haul program to be put into operatioi the producer, or processor, usually hs to assume the responsibility of tran portation and paying the worker on a individual bases; thereby creating pro! lems, responsibilities and expenses whic he does not wish to assume if possibl For this reason he stresses in his orde the crew leader type method of harve; operation. The farm placement service, along wi the producer, has found that a fast and more satisfactory job can be a complished in big harvest operations 1 using this source of labor in preferen to a day haul local labor recruiting pr gram. —See FAYETTEVILLE FPI, Page 23 SUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 19 1960 To Offer Real Challenge For Elizabeth City Farm Placement Interviewer By Floyd I. White Farm Placement Interviewer II The year 1960 promises to be another year of challenge for all those engaged in the recruitment and utilization of farm labor. The past seven years have been years of unprece-dented high levels of economic activity. Year after year there have been in-creases in seasonal agricultural employ-ment in this area. In spite of higher and higher agricultural output, the farm population and work white force have been de-clining steadily. As a matter of fact, the farm population has made a very sharp drop in eastern North Carolina. Under these circumstances, the challenge is for us to double our efforts, to utilize fully all available local workers, and try to achieve more conscientious employ-ment of migrant workers through the migrant leader counseling plan we have used during the past four years. It is our task, however, to demonstrate that every possible means have been used to see that jobs in agricultural activities are offered to unemployed workers to the extent that they are qualified and avail-able to accept this employment. Beginning with January, the writer, in a functional capacity, with the other farm placement representatives checked with brokers as to seed bought and the outlook of crop acreage from their ob-servations. Along with this operation, all Forms ES 369 and ES 2402 are checked for disqualifying statements and are also checked with the growers for the first time as to their attitude in regards to such crews with disqualifying remarks. In many cases, the majority of those crews are accepted. Some, however, are deleted. During this contact with far-mers, local groups are organized and leaders with crews are interviewed are prepared and possibly revised according to the present status of those in question. All information that we can possibly get pertinent to our set up is received for our approaching harvest. In February we are again following the same procedure as in January in order to catch any changes that some of the growers have made relative to crew shifts. We again check with the fertilizer dealers and resume housing surveys with the farm placement repre-sentatives in the area. As of February 1st, we try to have a conference at least jonce a week of all farm placement per-sonnel and the local office manager. This is necessary because of the writer's functional duties in regard to current operations. Later in this month, the Manager of the Virginia Employment Dffice in Norfolk, along with his large strawberry growers, make an appoint-ment with Mr. Pendleton, our Manager, for a conference with all farm place-ment personnel here in this office. This meeting is necessary, since the Elizabeth City area for the past seasons has sup-plied day-hauls to these growers, and at this particular time arrangements are made and loading points given to these growers' truck and bus drivers. This mat-ter of exchanging berry pickers with the Norfolk Office area has been very bene-ficial to use here, and they have always been responsive and cooperative in as-sisting us when we have called on them for workers. Entering into the month of March in a functional capacity, I have a consulta-tion with the Manager and request the farm placement personnel, each Friday and more often if necessary, to hold conferences. We, at this time, discuss any problems that confront us, exchange Truck loads of Pasquotank County potatoes line up for market. Below bags of potatoes sit in fields where harvest hands have left them for the trucks to pick up. ideas, offer suggestions, and make suffi-cient adjustments to clear our work cal-endar before it is necessary to have the next call meeting. In other words we cannot afford to let such accumulate; it is so easy to become confounded with confusion. During the last days of March, the writer is very busy seeing that the Forms 360-A are put in order with neces-sary information on each one to give the crew leader to be interviewed a clear understanding of employment opportuni-ties being offered him. By this time, he has received a second follow-up letter from the Elizabeth City Local office ad-vising that he has employment, and those who have been taken from our active list are requested to meet the Elizabeth City representative at one of the most convenient points while on his annual Florida itinerary. At this time different leaders who might have been deleted from our list are given assurance that the first opportunity we have, employ-ment will be offered. We find it very necessary to keep the relationship of the farm placement service above reproach at all times. (Occasionally, we have to take some of those to bridge the gap of shortages.) The first few days of April last minute checks on housing and orders and grower contacts made. Then the de-signated interviewer for the Eastern Seaboard States schedule is on his way to Florida. Duties of this interviewer while in Florida are to interview pre-designated crew leaders and all other leaders who are interested in existing employment chances in North Carolina. All crews are assigned identification cards. These are given the leader for each vehicle to be used in transporting equipment and labor to the employment area. A daily work sheet is kept intact by the North Carolina representative while in Florida. This is in addition to the Forms 369 used. As soon as this schedule is completed, the representative returns to Elizabeth City and immediately all farm placement representatives are called in. Forms 369 that are made on this trip for the Elizabeth City area are examined along with the daily work sheet. These are checked for any dis-crepancy that might have developed while the interviewer was in Florida. During the month of May, my super-vision is changed from functional to direct. The writer recommends to the Central office the need, if any, for addi-tional Farm Placement Interviewers, who are also assigned under the super-vision of the Interviewer II. The five farm placement interviewers and I get together, and everything that has hap-pened contrary to our original schedule is discussed and adjustments are made. They give to the writer a report on old housing, such as renovation, new housing, and fixtures. The growing stage of crops is watched very closely. The growers are contacted quite often. All information on crop maturity pos-sible is received and relayed by letter to the various groups that are to start reporting in here May 18th. This proce-dure is followed until June 10th when all predesignated crews are in and sheltered. At this particular time we have what is better known as free-wheelers. These are mostly automobile, pick-up and one-truck groups who come here to the office. All farm placement men are contacted to determine the need for additional work-ers of this kind. The writer is in the field most of each day from 9:00 o'clock until 6:00 o'clock P.M. He is always in the office from 5:30 til 9:00 o'clock —See CHALLENGE, Page 26— PAGE 20 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959 Camden County Between Pasquotank & Currituck By S. B. Seymour, Jr. Farvn Placement Interviewer I Camden County lies between Pasquo-tank and Currituck Counties and has a rich farm land which produces as its chief crops, potatoes, corn, soybeans, pea-nuts, wheat, cotton and many kinds of truck crops, varying in acreage from year to year. These consist of snapbeans, cabbage, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and sweet corn. Camden County has three large grain elevators, giving a general idea of the volume of grain produced in the County. Due to adequate rainfall and soil fertility, a crop failure in Camden County is almost unheard of. Farm activities begin around the first of January with the recruiting of local labor. Around January 5th, cabbage set-ting begins. Acreage of this crop varies from year to year. In February, farmers begin planting potatoes from the 10th of February until the last of March. During these months, the farm place-ment job is to evaluate how much labor will be needed to harvest these crops; also to check on housing facilities avail-able for migrant crews who will arrive in May. During the month of April, quite a recruiting program is carried out for local labor to pick strawberries in an ad-joining state. A sufficient number of these crews are retained in the area to take care of the spring cabbage harvest, which begins about the 15th of May and will usually last for about three weeks. Strawberry crews are brought back to the area in time for the spring snapbean harvest. The first arrival of migrants is usually around the 18th of May through the month of June. These early crews, plus local crews, are used to harvest snap-beans in Currituck County on a day-haul basis, and are used there until about the 5th of June, at which time they are brought back to start potato harvest in Camden County. Approximately 1400 migrants and 700 local workers are re-quired to harvest the potato crop. The greatest satisfaction of Farm Placement work is when a man gets by one day without being fussed at about showing partiality, and in knowing he has done a good job to help some farmer harvest his crops. In order to do a good job in the harvesting of the potato crop, one has to know where each crew is locat-ed, how many potatoes need to be dug per day and exactly what time they will finish a job in order to be able to shift them to some other farmer who is in desperate need of labor—especially when demand and price are good. We had the satisfaction this year of having one rep-resentative of a potato chip firm to tell us we had one of the best operating farm —See CAMDEN COUNTY, Page 25— Pasquotank Has Real Farm Placement Supporters By E. T. Berry Farm Placement Interviewer I In Pasquotank County the atmospheric conditions are splendid for growing vege-table crops of all kinds. In fact, Pasquo-tank County cabbage and potatoes are known along the eastern half of the na-tion for superior quality and packaging. Lettuce compares favorably with any on the market and is rapidly gaining in popularity as a crop and a commodity. Approximately l 1 /^ million bushels of corn and V2 million bushels of soy are raised each year. Every spring and fall 48 million pounds of cabbage are harvest-ed, along with 3000 acres of wheat, oats and milo. One hundred million pounds of potatoes and 150,000 crates of sugar corn are marketed products of Pasquotank County's fields. Rich soil and above average rain fall make this County one of the most productive in the State. On the 16th day of May, the writer be-gan duty as a full time farm placement representative in the Pasquotank County area (having previously worked part time during 1958 on a temporary basis). At this time of the year potato planting was in full swing. The pro-cess of planting, hoeing and harvest-ing 4,500 acres in potatoes is no mere detail, especially when practically every farmer in the County is anxious to get his potatoes in the ground fo
Object Description
Description
Title | E.S.C. quarterly |
Date | 1959 |
Publisher | Raleigh, N.C.: Employment Security Commission of North Carolina,1947-1975. |
Rights | State Document see http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,63754 |
Language | English |
Digital Characteristics-A | 108 p.; 22.75 MB |
Digital Collection | North Carolina Digital State Documents Collection |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Title Replaces | U.C.C. quarterly** |
Audience | All |
Pres File Name-M | pubs_serial_escquarterly19581960.pdf |
Pres Local File Path-M | Preservation_content\StatePubs\pubs_serial_escquarterly |
Full Text |
^& lawn Carolina State Library
The E. S. C. Quarterly
/OLUME 17, NO. 3-4 SUMMER-FALL, 1959
FARM PLACEMENT EDITION, (See Inside Front Cover) INDEX ON PAGE 93
PUBLISHED BY
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
RALEIGH, N. C.
PAGE 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 19591
The E. S. C. Quarterly CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS
(Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly)
Vol. 17, No. 3-4 Summer-Fall, 1959
Issued at Raleigh, N. C. by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners : Mrs. Quentin Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Maurice
Van Hecke, Chapel Hill; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; W. Benton
Pipkin, Keidsville; Bruce E. Davis, Charlotte; Crayon C.
Enrd, Albemarle.
State Advisory Council: Public representatives: James A.
Bridger, Bladenboro, Chairman ; Sherwood Roberson, Rober-sonville;
W. B. Horton, Yanceyville; Mrs. R. C. Lewellyn,
Dobson, and Dr. J. W. Seabrook, Fayetteville; Employer
representatives: A. L. Tait, Lincolnton and G. Maurice
Hill, Drexel; Employee representatives: Melvin Ward,
Spencer, AFL and H. D. Lisk, Charlotte, CIO.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Insurance Division
JOSEPH W. BEACH Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
TED DAVIS Editor
Public Information Officer, Member PRSA
MARTHA JACKSON Associate Editor
Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E.S.C. Informational
Service, P. O. Box 589, Raleigh, N. C.
INDEX APPEARS ON PAGE 93
ABOUT THE COVER PICTURES
T"ie two top pictures show the dual-jobs of Mayor Wesson O. Batchelor,
of Sherpsburg. N. C. At left he is shown aboard his tractor on his farm
an i at right at the controls of a National Guard helicopter prior to a
refine training mission. Story is on page 40.
Center left is shown a view inside the missile plant of Douglas Air-craft
in Charlotte. Story on page 55.
Csrtter right is the new AEROTRON plant which is being built on U. S.
Hhhway No. 1 just North of Raleigh where two-way mobile radios are
being built. (Page 70).
Bottom left shows Farm Placement Interviewer D. H. Bunn, Migrant
C-ew Leader Ace Evans, cucumber grower N. N. Ellis, Faison, and Farm
P cc»ment Interviewer Albert Hickman.
On the right is a mechanical bean picker at work on the farm of
Wi!ey Long, Jr., Garysburg. Covering two rows at a time, this harvester
eas:.y picks as many beans as 100 pickers each day.
Henry E. Kendall, Chairman
Employment Security Commission
One of the most interesting stories in Employment Security!
is that of the work done by our Farm Placement Interview-)
ers and Supervisors. Working long hours during the harvest
seasons, these men go at such a steady pace that we oftenj
fear for their health.
KtNDALL
Mrs. Martha F. Jackson
Named Associate Editor
On the right is Mrs. Martha F. Jack-son,
Associate Editor and Secretary to
the Public Information Officer of the
Employment Security Commission. Al-though
she has been doing editorial work
for more than a year, we have just gotten
around to recognizing her efforts official-ly
with a title.
Mrs. Jackson has been in the PIO office
fcr a little over three years, but was
formerly doing stenographic work. In
her new position she edits articles sub-mitted
for publication, writes stories on
commission activities and industries, and
handles the photographic department's
production for the engravers. ASSOCIATE EDITOR JACKSON
Each of the men assigned to Farmi
Placement believes so thoroughly in the
work he is doing that when he is askedj
about activity in his area it is almost asi
though he were Coleridge's "weddingj
guest" reincarnated. He feels he musljl
tell you all the wonderful things aboulil
his section. The zeal and enthusiasm witrj
which he describes the program stemsl
from his belief and faith in what he anc
|
his colleagues are doing. He sees eacljl
day what to many of us is a hazy picture interpreted inadej
quately, but unintentionally, by some media. The overall
workings of the Farm Placement Service is so complex thaj
it is almost impossible to cover all its facets.
Who can do justice in words alone to an acre of straw
berries which yields a $1000 net profit to the grower; or
drought which ruins thousands of acres of tomatoes in
single week? What photograph can tell the complete stor;
of a celery harvesting machine which requires 60 people h
operate it and which harvests 24 rows of celery at a time
How do you do justice to describing 19 consecutive days o
rain which rots nine out of every ten stalks before it can bi
harvested? What words can describe the thrill felt by a farr
placement interviewer when he learns that despite the eld
ments which destroyed half the harvest that the growerj
plan to plant even more acreage in the crop next year? Coul
you adequately describe your feelings after you had leane
over to examine a head of lettuce only to find your fac
within inches of a deadly rattler?
No one has completely delineated the vast and expandin
farm placement story. With this in mind, the editors aske
the farm placement people to write their story. For most c
them, writing is hard work, especially when it has to be don
late at night, on weekends and at odd times between jo
orders. While we think of all our ESC people as being con
petent and interested in their work the intense interest Fan
Placement Workers have in their jobs makes them seem jus
a little more dedicated in purpose.
Your particular attention is directe
to the chart on the next page. Shown ai
some impressive ascending figures (
Farm Placements. 1959 bodes to top a
previous records.
Electronic manufacturing firms a?
also being featured in this edition of Tl
E.S.C. Quarterly. There is a comple
list of these firms in this edition ai
manufacturers outside the State &
showing more interest in electronic d
velopments.
Newspapers carrying the colun
"N. C. Job Picture" which I write ea
week are also included in this issue
are some of the leading manufacture]
of farm equipment.
Every industry listed in this editi
contributes to the support of the E
ployment Security Commission progra
It is a pleasure to have a part in pi
senting them to our readers "in prin
SUMMER-FALL, 1959 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 3
Farm Placement Is Big Business For North Carolina Employment Service
Recruiting labor for harvesting North
Carolina's money crops is a momentous
task. With no control over prices paid
for labor, Farm Placement Interviewers
and Supervisors must recruit for all who
ask for the service.
They are concerned
only with getting the
workers to the farms
when they are need-ed.
All contracts are
made between the
workers and the
farmers or growers.
Sometimes individu-ally,
often through
UMSTEAD Crew Leaders who
are paid by the grower and these lead-ers
in turn settle with the individual
laborers.
Riding herd over this tremendous op-eration,
which stretches from Manteo to
Murphy at the far ends of the State,
are two old-timers in the Employment
Service. With some fifty years of expe-rience
between them, Farm Placement
Supervisor Raymond P. Umstead, and
Assistant Farm Placement Supervisor
Curtis B. Gilliam, keep in touch with
every man in Farm
Placement by phone,
personal contact, and
weekly reports.
Coordinating the
reports and corre-spondence
is Mrs.
Sylvia Ballard, sec-retary
to these busy
|men.
More than place-
Jments were made on GILLIAM
|the farms of North Carolina last year
by the Employment Service. This is
an imposing figure, but it grows more
significant when consideration is given
Ito the fact that Farm Placement Inter-viewers
and Supervisors not only had to
recruit these work-ers,
but perform
many other minor
tasks as well. For in-stance,
when trans-portation
was being
furnished by a Crew
Leader, they had to
inspect the truck or
bus to see if it met
certain safety re-quirements
; check
lousing for migrants; contact crew lead-ers
on a moment's notice when crops
matured faster than had been anticipat-ed;
recruit whole crews of laborers and
Joordinate their activities with harvest-ng
operations according to the need, and
uccession of job orders; keep tab on
nticipated need for out-of-state migrants
nd the harvest dates of the various
rops; and work as many hours as need-jd,
knowing that it would be impossible
3 take "compensatory" time for the
BALLARD
The N. C. Farm-Industrial Relationship
**$•
By David Garrison,
State Labor Market Analyst, ESC
In 1940, just prior to World War II,
one-third of the employed workers in
North Carolina worked in agriculture.
Ten years later, the 1950 Federal census
showed that the relationship between the
State's agricultural ]
employment and to-tal
employment hadj
changed rather
sharply—only one of f
every four employed ]
Tar Heels was work-ing
on the farm.
During the 1940-1
1950 period, farm I
employment in non-
1
agricultural indus-
1
tries soared upward
by more than 306,- j
000 workers. There
*
are numerous indi-cations
that these same trends have con-tinued
since 1950 and that the 1960 cen-sus
will point up further widening be-many
hours of "overtime" involved in
Farm Placement activities.
FPS Umstead and Asst. FPS Gilliam
worked right along with the men in the
field, often driving a hundred or more
miles "before work" in order to be "on
the scene" when needed.
The articles which follow may not be
great writing in the sense of deathless
prose, but the editors challenge you to
find a more intensely interesting story,
told by people more dedicated to their
work.
GARRISON
tween the State's agricultural and non-agricultural
workforce totals.
Declining farm employment in North
Carolina, as throughout the nation, is
primarily an outgrowth of improving
technology and scientific progress. These
factors have contributed to vastly in-creased
production of farm commodities
with fewer and fewer workers. Farm
output per man hour in the United States
is estimated to have doubled since the
pre-World War II period. This increased
production—and in many instances over-production—
has led to the programs for
price supports, acreage curtailments,
soil bank plans, and other governmental
programs which have had a direct curb-ing
influence on farm employment, par-ticularly
among tenants, sharecroppers,
and unpaid family workers.
Still another important factor which
has contributed to the farm employment
decline in North Carolina has been the
relatively low economic status of many
Tar Heel farm workers. According to
the 1954 Census of Agriculture, there
were almost 800,000 persons working on
North Carolina farms in October of that
year. This total included around 209,000
family workers who received no real
wages for their labor. Approximately
90,500 hired workers were employed on
30,000 reporting farms, but only about
13,500 of these workers were classified
as full-time or regular farm hands, the
remainder being employed on a part-time
or seasonal basis. Slightly over a third
of these 90,500 hired workers were paid
daily wages which averaged $4.65 for a
nine hour day, while almost another
—See INDUSTRIAL, Page 8—
SEASONAL TREND OF AGRICULTURAL PLACEMENTS
BY MONTH FOR YEARS 1955 1959
Thousands of Placements
180
Thousands of Placements
180
160
PAGE 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY SUMMER-FALL, 1959
PITT COUNTY GROWS 21147.27 ACRES OF TOBACCO ANNUALLY
programs
in an ex-
AMERSON
By A. D. Amerson
Farm Placement Interviewer I
Pitt County is the world's largest to-bacco
growing county. There are 2724
tobacco farm owners with an allotment
of 25,147.27 acres. In addition to tobacco;
corn, cotton, cucumbers, and sweet pota-toes
play a large part in this agricultural
county's economy.
The expanding agricultural
in Pitt County have resulted
panding Farm Place-ment
Program to
meet the increased
and varied demands
for seasonal and
year - round farm
labor.
The largest de-mand
for seasonal
labor is, of course,
in the harvest of to-bacco.
This labor is
procured from three
sources: local, intra-state,
and inter-state. Intra-state labor is
that labor which is recruited within the
state but out of Pitt County. Inter-state
labor is that labor which is recruited in
one state to work in another.
There are four chief methods of pro-cedures
in the recruiting of local labor,
and these are: the use of NCSES-2406's,
personal contact and follow up, contacts
through Farm Employment Days, and
through publicity. The NCSES-2406
(Yearly Community Visit Report) is a
form which was devised for the purpose
of recording information on groups
of local workers. This form is com-pleted
when a crew leader or group of
workers are first contacted by the Farm
Placement Interviewer upon his first con-tact
with a crew leader or a group of
workers. This form includes the leader's
name, address, telephone number; the
number men, women, and children who
work in his crew, or the number that he,
the crew leader, can recruit at a given
time of the year; the number, if any, who
are willing to leave home for the season,
and the number of months that they are
available to work away from home.
The second procedure for recruiting
local labor is by personal contact and
follow-up. This procedure is probably
used more than any of the others because
better results are obtained. However,
there are some instances when this meth-od
would be impractical such as the re-cruitment
of a large number of workers
with a short time in which to do it. In
such cases, loud speakers, radio, T. V.,
and newspapers are very practical and
produce very good results.
The third method of recruiting local
workers are by contacts through Farm
Employment Days. A Farm Employment
Day is a day when applicants for farm
jobs meet in either the local Employment
Security Office or some designated place.
Farm applicants are interviewed and
farm employer orders are received by the
Farm Placement Representative. The
farm orders are matched with the farm
applications and employers and appli-cants
are given an opportunity to con-sult
each other and their decisions are
made known to the Farm Placement In-terviewer.
The fourth, but by no means the least,
method of recruiting local labor in Pitt
County is through the media of Tele-vision
Station, WNCT, Radio Station,
WGTC, The Greenville Daily Reflector,
The Grifton Times, and the Farmville
Enterprise. Much credit goes especially
to Television Station, WNCT and to the
Greenville Daily Reflector in the fine co-operation
they have given me in the re-cruiting
of workers and the many other
programs.
There are several procedures for tak-ing
farm orders. Principally, they are as
follows : preseason surveys of labor needs,
scheduling crews on NCSES-2408 (To-bacco
Harvest Workers Schedule), mak-ing
housing surveys on form NCSES-
2412, taking orders on ES-560-A's (Clear-ance
Order For Seasonal Agricultural
Labor), taking orders on NCSES-522
(Farm Order Form), order changes on
ES-383's (Clearance Memorandum Sea-sonal
Agricultural Workers), and com-pleting
form ES-369 (Migratory Labor
Employment Record) upon the arrival
and departure of crews. Form FP-2
(History of Crews and Crew Leaders) is
also completed upon the departure of a
crew.
Preseason surveys of labor needs are
usually conducted during the late winter
and early spring months. Consultations
are held with the county ASC manager,
Mr. Walter Hasty, the county agent, Mr.
Sam Winchester, farm leaders, and var-ious
farm groups. I am on the mailing
list of both the county agent and the
ASC office and am kept up to date on
any changes or programs conducted by
these agencies. From the ASC office, I
obtain the allotments on tobacco, corn,
peanuts, cotton, and wheat. Of course,
there are no allotments on the various
truck crops but reasonably accurate esti-mates
can be made of these by consulting
the county agent and the leading truck
crop growers. Knowing the number of
acres of each crop to be planted is a very
good barometer for determining the a-mount
of labor that will be needed.
After Department of Agriculture offi-cials
have been consulted, visits are then
made to leading truck crop farmers, to
farmers that used out-of-state labor the
previous year to harvest tobacco, and to
various farmers using the bulk of local
labor in previous year. The farmer and
I discuss his labor needs and orders are
taken on NCSES-560-A's and on NCSES-
522's. During this time, appearances are
made on Television Station, WNCT,
Radio Station, WGTC, and all county
newspapers are asked to run articles urg-ing
farmers to determine their laboi
needs and to let me have their orders as]
soon as possible. Also, any person seek-ing
a year-round job as farm hand oi
tenant are asked to register with the I
Farm Placement Interviewer. All ordersll
for out-of-state tobacco workers art
scheduled on NCSES-2408's and are for
warded to applicant-holding states as
soon as enough orders are received tc
justify a crew coming in. Usually, out
of-state tobacco crews will vary fron
30-50 workers. Some crews have come ir
with as many as 100-115 workers bu'
this is the exception rather than th
rule. Smaller crews usually operate mori
efficiently than the larger ones but some
times circumstances force the Farn
Placement Interviewer to schedule largji
crews. For instance, in some cases
enough out-of-state orders are not re
ceived to justify two small crews t
come in then they will be combined int>
one large crew. In the event this hap
pens, the crew leader is asked to furnisl
a man to assist him in the supervisio:
and transporting of the workers once i:
Pitt County.
After orders are received, it is detei
mined if adequate and qualified local la
bor is available to fill all the labor need;
If adequate or qualified local labor i
not available, then NCSES-560-A's aij
completed and forwarded to labor suppl
states, Florida, Alabama, or Mississipp
Surveys are next made to determin
if adequate housing and facilities ai
available for recruited migrant worker
Farm mechanization and cuts in tobacc
allotments have forced many farm peop;
to move into towns and cities in searo
of other work leaving many farmer ten
ant houses vacant. Housing presents ver
little, if any, recruiting problems in Pi
County. In addition to housing, farmei
provide bunks or beds, mattresses, coc
stove, lights, water, and toilet. Up unt
this year, migratory housing was not i
spected by the local health authoritie
I am proud to say that one leadir
farmer, in addition to providing tl
standard facilities, also furnished whi
sheets, pillow cases, refrigerator, and
TV set. Farmers like this will never ha
problems getting good workers
Any changes in an order are ma<
known to the applicant-holding stat(|
who in turn notify the crew leadei|
These changes are made on form E
383, (Clearance Memorandum Season
Agricultural Workers.) There are t\
changes in an order that occur more fil
quently than others and these are ad |
OCLC number | 26477199 |