Disposition
A migrant farmworker pauses from harvesting potatoes, seemingly aware of being photographed (but does she have a choice?). The location given is Jablonski’s farm in Wayland, Steuben County, perhaps dating to the 1970s or ‘80s. Between the farmworker’s legs is a large bucket that must be filled twice to complete each 70-pound burlap bag. The work of getting potatoes out of the ground is one reason why she has traveled from Florida. Strange as it may sound, though, the economic value and even the meaning of potatoes—and thus the hired labor harvesting them—have been in constant flux since colonization of the Genesee Valley. The work of hands always changes, depending upon such volatile factors as commodity prices, profitability, farm size, labor markets, crop blights, and even consumer tastes.
Early colonists usually farmed 100-200 acres, experiencing an “involuntary self-sufficiency” due to sketchy transportation and agricultural markets (McNall 80, 242). This meant that the disposition of crops like potatoes overwhelmingly was for reseeding, livestock feed, local sale, and simply to feed the farmers themselves. Opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 radically changed the cost of transportation and access to agricultural markets; wheat was the most profitable crop, and so any hired hands usually worked on that harvest. Because potatoes could be stored for long periods and our climate was favorable, they too were harvested and shipped outside of the state—New York remained the nation’s largest producer until the 1920s (Lucier 3). As we see in the chart below, however, the disposition of potatoes changed during the 20th century “as production became more concentrated in the hands of commercial growers” (USDA 2). Put simply, fewer potatoes were being used for seed or consumed by farm families as their ranks diminished; with the disappearance of that work force, more migrant workers would be required to harvest the crop.
According to the Empire Potato Growers there are now about 150 potato farms across the state, in contrast to an estimated 600 apple orchards (Empire; NYAA). Obviously, the potato business in New York is not nearly as prolific as it once was because of a drastic drop in the number of farms. But agricultural scale wasn’t the only factor: in 1873, Luther Burbank introduced a variety of Russet potato that, while not popular initially, proved to be excellent for the new product of frozen french fries beginning in the 1940s and ‘50s. Along with refrigerated rail cars and irrigation to Western potato fields, that region required more hired hands and New York fewer. Today, the state’s crop is used primarily for potato chips and harvested mostly using machines.
Works Consulted
-- Empire Potato Growers. “Meet Your Grower.” Website. Hyperlink here.
-- Lucier, Gary, et al. U.S. Potato Statistics, 1949-1989. US Department of Commerce, 1991.
-- McNall, Neil Adams. Agricultural History of the Genesee Valley, 1790 -1860. Oxford University Press, 1952.
-- New York Apple Association. Apples from New York. N.D. Hyperlink here