OCR Text |
Show FARMERS FACE A SERIOUS PROBLEM Continued Storms Delay Beet Thinning Work The Cache county farm labor committee Monday appointed a committee to investigate ''pirating of farm labor" and discussed plans for an intensive drive to recruit laborers for thinning the county's beet fields as soon as weather conditions permit, County Agent Lloyd R. Hunsaker reported today. Because of continued rains, beet thinning work has been at a standstill for the past 15 days, he explained. The moisture has been valuable to the beet crop, but they now are becoming too large to thin properly and fields in general gen-eral are weedy. Bennie J. Ravsten, farm labor supervisor, said his workers will start immediately to contact all business men and school students who are not employed on farms, and organize crews. These crews will go into the fields as soon as the weather breaks and the ground dries up sufficiently enough to permit thinning. Mr. Ravsten explained that normally nor-mally the beet thinning is prac- tically complete in the county by June 15, and only a few acres in the northern sections have been taken care of to date. Laborers from the mobile farm labor iamp hi Amalga, also will be utilized for the thinning work, and if necessary, neces-sary, crews of Cache Valley high school students now employed at the Utah Army service forces depot de-pot in Ogden, will be returned to aid with the task. Mr. Hunsaker explained that if the storm continues much longer, a real problem will develop in regard re-gard to application of laborers. He said the rain has been highly beneficial to the first crop of alfalfa, which is now ready to cut and process. "If haying work and the beet thinning continues for another month they also will compete for labor with canning crops, especially especial-ly peas," he explained. A.- W. Chambers, committee chairman, was asked to appoint a committee to determine fair wage rates where land owners and laborers negotiate their own con-i con-i tracts. |