Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/97

 WITH OREGON HOP PICKERS

ANNIE MARION MacLEAN Adelphi College, Brooklyn, N. Y.

While conducting an investigation ^ into conditions of indus- try among young women for the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associations I went out to the Pacific Coast to direct personally the work in that section. It had seemed well to us in making arrangements for the investigation to in- clude hop picking in Oregon, as it furnishes a considerable field of employment to women during the month of September. Moreover, it was an hitherto unstudied industry, and yet of sufficient importance to warrant the most careful study.

Of the hop-raising states Oregon is the most important, producing in 1907 about 25,000,000 pounds as against 18,000,- 000 for California, 10,000,000 for New York and 8,000,000 for Washington. Before 1850 most of the hops in the country were raised in New England. During the next forty years New York produced more than all the other states combined. Now the palm goes to the Pacific Coast country, which has today 40,- 000 acres under hops. A generation ago it had less than 2,000. Scarsity of labor, prohibitionist agitation and worn-out soil have combined to render hop growing in New York unprofitable. The unfertilized soil of Oregon will yield twice as many pounds to the acre as the New York earth can produce aided by much fertilization.

I found that very little could be learned on the outside con- cerning the conditions of the work, so I decided to hire out as a picker and go with the crowd to learn something of the life at first hand. I arrived in Portland a few days before the opening of the season, which is about the first of September, and com- menced to look around for work. I eagerly scanned the advertis- ing columns of the daily papers to see if more pickers were need-

^The summer of 1907.

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