Not including one district of 8,500 acres, which was not reported. The number and racial distribution of contract growers in this division were not reported, but 300 acres were said to be grown by German-Russians and 140 acres by Japanese. < See notes • and d.

While fully one-fourth of the beets in California were grown on the account of the various companies, only a very small percentage were so grown in Colorado. More than 95 per cent of the crop is grown by farmers who have entered into contracts with the various companies for the sale of their beets. In 1909, omitting the growers in two localities with 9,000 acres, there were 5,298 of these farmers. Most of them were native whites and North Europeans, while 14 per cent were German-Russians, 3 per cent Japanese, and less than 1 per cent Mexicans, the last three races being most conspicuous as laborers doing the hand work in the beet fields.

GROWERS' CONTRACTS.

The forms of growers' contracts used in Colorado are similar to those used in California. The prices paid for beets vary somewhat, however, from California prices. In the first place, the flat rate per ton is much more common than in California, being used at about twothirds of the factories. This rate in 1909 was commonly $5 per ton for beets of at least 12 per cent sugar content and 80 per cent purity. Prices paid under the sliding scale, where such was in use, varied from $4 per ton for beets of 12 per cent sugar, with 25 cents additional for every additional per cent, to $4.50 per ton for beets of from 12 to 14 per cent sugar, with 50 cents additional for beets of between 14 and 16 per cent, and $1 additional for beets of 16 per cent or

more.

REGULAR FIELD LABOR.

As in California, the regular field work is done chiefly by "American labor;" that is, by Americans and Americanized Europeans. Whenever it is done by individuals of other races-by German-Russians, Japanese, or Mexicans it is done, as a rule, in accordance with the terms of a share lease, or because the laborer owns the land he works. The one-fourth share lease, a common form in Colorado, provides that the tenant shall do the teamwork as well as the hand work. Such teamsters and traction engineers as are hired for the regular field work are hired at the wages current for this

kind of labor in general ranching. As in California, board and lodging are usually provided in addition to wages.

It is probable that a much larger part of the teamwork is done by owners and tenants in Colorado than in California. This is indicated by two facts: (1) The very much smaller area held by sugar companies in Colorado than in California, and (2) the smaller average holding of contract growers in Colorado. In California it was seen that the average contract grower in the representative number of cases considered owned or leased 50 acres of land. The average holding in Colorado, as shown by the data for districts for which there is complete information, is only a little over 20 acres.

HAND WORKERS.

Over 15,000 persons were employed in the hand work of the sugarbeet industry of Colorado in 1909. The following table shows their distribution by races and localities:

TABLE 39.-Hand workers in sugar-beet fields in Colorado, 1909, by race.

a This figure probably includes some German-Russians.

The most striking fact brought out by this table is the large proportion of German-Russians employed in thinning, hoeing, and topping beets. Members of this race comprise over two-fifths of the total number of persons employed and outnumber all the other races, save "miscellaneous white," combined.

The greatest numerical strength of the German-Russians is in northern Colorado, where 5,870 of the race, or over five-sixths of their total for the State, are employed. The relative importance of this race, moreover, is also greater here than in any other part of the State except in western Colorado, where 350 of the 550 persons employed are German-Russians.

The Japanese and Mexicans, the only important rivals of the German-Russians, are found in about equal numbers, there being in 1909 about 2,600 of each race. The Japanese show their greatest strength in northern Colorado; in the southern section of the State they are outnumbered by the Mexicans. The Mexicans are absolutely and relatively most numerous in southern Colorado, and comprise, it will be noted, something more than two-fifths of the total in this section.

Returning to the consideration of the State at large, mention should be made of the "miscellaneous whites." This class, although it outnumbers every other class except the German-Russians, is not an important rival of any of the three principal immigrant races.

This is true for two reasons: The first is that a large proportion of the "miscellaneous whites" are landowners, most of whom devote only a part of their land to the growing of sugar beets. The second reason is that because of their wide distribution and lack of group solidarity miscellaneous white laborers are incapable of being organized and worked in groups.

Turning to the races of minor importance, we find that 250 Indians, 21 Greeks, and 20 Koreans were reported for the State, all being employed in southern Colorado. It is probable, however, that some Greeks not included above were reported as "miscellaneous whites" and that some Koreans were reported as Japanese. The error in either case, however, is not important. As regards the Indians, they were members of Indian settlements not far distant and were induced by the sugar company employing them to take work in the beet fields during the season of 1909.

In comparing the numbers of different races employed as here reported it must be remembered that numerical strength is not a final test of the importance of any race in the industry. Account must be taken of variations in efficiency. These variations are wide. The total of German-Russians reported, for example, includes a large proportion of women and children, who do somewhat less work in a day than adult men of the same race, and the latter in turn are much slower workers than the Japanese. The average Japanese in Colorado is said to be able to care for from 10 to 15 acres of beets throughout the season. The German-Russian who works for hire, on the other hand, can not satisfactorily attend to much more than In northern Colorado, in fact, he is often specifically restricted to 7 acres per season, and women and children are limited to proportionate amounts. The efficiency of the Mexican is about. equal to that of the German-Russian. It appears, then, that although the Japanese and Mexicans in the industry are numerically equal, their importance in it is by no means the same.

A comparison of the hand-labor situation in Colorado with that in California brings to light several suggestive differences. In the first place it will be noted that a larger number of persons are required to do the work in Colorado than in California. The sugarbeet acreage in Colorado, as has been seen, is about 123,000 and the laborers employed for the hand work in the beet fields 15,000. The corresponding figures for California are 75,000 acres and perhaps 7,000 laborers. The average hand worker in Colorado, therefore, cares for only a little more than 8 acres per season, while the average hand worker in California attends to nearly 11 acres. This difference is largely accounted for by the second difference-a difference in the composition of the working force in the two States.

In California two-thirds of the hand workers are Japanese. In Colorado only one-sixth are Japanese, while over two-fifths, as we have seen, are German-Russians. Mexicans are employed in about equal proportions in the two States, and their number, consequently, is more than twice as great in Colorado as in California. No East Indians are employed in Colorado, but the American Indian appears as a new but minor element in the labor supply.

METHODS OF HIRING HAND WORKERS.

Japanese and Mexicans are hired in groups as in California, and the general conditions under which they are employed in Colorado are so similar to those in California that nothing further need be said of them here.

The German-Russians are also hired in groups, but the group in this case is the family. The contract is of course made with the head of the household, who takes the whole family-so far as it is of working age and ability-with him to the beet fields.

Contract prices in 1909, except in some parts of southern Colorado, were commonly $20 per acre "flat" (i. e., regardless of the tonnage of the yield). One district in southern Colorado, however, reported a flat rate of $16.50, while another reported a schedule of prices based on a tonnage rate for the topping, with fixed prices per acre for the thinning and hoeing. Prices in this district were as follows:

Thinning.

Hoeing-
Topping.

Loading.

$6.75 per acre. 1.50 per acre. .55 per ton.

.06 per ton.

Save in this instance, the contract prices quoted do not include payments for loading. This is usually done by the farmer or by his teamsters.

In the case of Japanese employed under the "boss" system, the wages actually received by the laborer are commonly $2 less per acre than the prices quoted in the foregoing, this sum being the commission charged by the bosses. The amount of the bosses' commission is regulated either by contractors' associations alone or by collective bargaining between these associations and associations of hand workers."

EARNINGS OF HAND WORKERS.

Except in southern Colorado the prices paid for hand work are considerably higher than in California. It was seen in the preceding section that as a rule $20 an acre is paid for thinning, hoeing, and topping. For this reason the rates of earnings in Colorado for laborers of the Japanese and Mexican races are somewhat higher than the rates for laborers of the same races in California. For example, 200 out of a representative selection of 370 Japanese beet workers in northern Colorado averaged earnings of between $3 and $3.50 per day worked in the thinning season of 1909.

As for the German-Russians in Colorado, it is impossible to present statistics of their earnings suitable for comparison with those for other races because of the fact that they work and are paid by families. Some basis for comparison, however, is afforded by the limitation of seven acres per season which in some localities is placed on the work to be done by an adult man of the German-Russian race. This limitation, as has been explained, is considered necessary to the performance of thorough and careful work.

The earnings of hand workers in the beet fields of Colorado are sufficiently above those of common laborers to attract them from other

• See p. 125.

localities in Colorado and from neighboring States. The Japanese now come largely from the coal mines of Wyoming and Colorado, and from maintenance-of-way work on the railroads. Denver is an important distributing center for Japanese beet workers. The permanent Japanese population of the city was estimated by the secretary of the Japanese Association of Colorado to be approximately 600 in 1909, but the total Japanese population of the city was said to rise as high as 1,500 during the interval between the hoeing and harvesting season in the beet fields and after the season's campaign is over. The Mexican hand workers come from various parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, and from El Paso, Tex., while the German-Russians immigrate independently from Nebraska and Russia, or are imported from Nebraska by sugar companies.

RACE CHANGES.

The first permanent beet-sugar factory in Colorado was opened for operation in 1899. Consequently the great development of the industry in that State has taken place within the last decade, and there has not been time for sweeping changes in the composition of the labor supply.

The situation of the beet grower in Colorado from the first has been materially different from that of the California grower. Unlike the latter, he has never been able to rely on a resident labor supply, but has always been compelled to resort to imported labor. Previous to the introduction of the sugar-beet industry those districts of Colorado where it now flourishes were given over almost entirely to cattle and sheep raising. Irrigation systems and intensive agriculture have displaced the animal industries to the present extent, largely because of the advent of sugar-beet culture. Previous to this most of the country was barren and sparsely populated.

From the first the burden of securing a labor supply has rested upon the sugar companies because, without the guaranty of an adequate supply of labor to be available when needed, farmers could not be induced to engage in so intensive a branch of agriculture as the growing of sugar beets. Moreover, in some districts much of the land first used for beet growing was "company land" worked directly by the sugar companies. For example, the first factory in southern Colorado was part of an enterprise which involved the purchase of 12,000 acres of land and the installation of an irrigation system in an arid and previously barren region. In this case the sugar company at first grew its own beets, and the problem of the hand-labor supply was therefore primarily its own problem.

In the early years of the industry in Colorado three different races of immigrants were imported from other States by the sugar companies. German-Russians were brought in from Grand Island, Nebr., by the trainload, and Mexicans were similarly brought in from Arizona, New Mexico, and El Paso, Tex. Many of those coming from El Paso are said to have been induced by liberal advertising to come directly from Mexico. Some Japanese were imported from California. In nearly all cases the fares of the laborers were paid by the sugar companies, and often they were provided with tickets for their

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