Child Labor and the Work of Mothers in the Beet Fields of Colorado and Michigan (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Child Labor and the Work of Mothers in the Beet Fields of Colorado and Michigan Between the last hoeing - that is, about the end of J uly - and the time of harvest an interval of some weeks elapses. The date of beginning the harvest depends upon the sugar content of the beets and is determined by the chemists in the testing stations of the sugar companies. After the beets have been loosened from the soil by a horse-drawn machine known as a lifter, they are pulled up by the hand worker and thrown in piles or rows to be topped. For the latter operation a sharp, heavy knife, about 18 inches long, with a hook at the end, is used. The worker, with the knife grasped in the right hand, hooks up the beet and chops off the crown of leaves with a sharp, downward stroke. All leaves must be cut cleanly away and to do this more than one stroke is frequently required. As the beets, though averaging under 3 pounds with the tops, are often too heavy for a child to hold firmly enough to stand the cut ting stroke of the knife, many children rest the beet on their knee, standing on one foot While they cut the leaves off or top the beet. Where adults and children are working in groups together, the children frequently pull and throw the beets in piles 'for the adults to top; but if there are more children than are needed for pulling, the larger children top and the smaller ones pull and pile. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.