The Fruits of Labor
From the Ephraim Historical Foundation Archives - 1993.220.0001
Blossoming trees, families enjoying an afternoon hand-picking fruit at their favorite orchard, and that perfect post-dinner slice of cherry pie. These are all images we associate with a quintessential Door County summer. The average visitor may not think past this blissful experience of ‘Cherryland’, but behind the millions of pounds of cherries harvested from Door County’s orchards every year there are complex histories. Amongst these often-untold histories are stories tied to labor availability, domestic policy, and workers’ rights.
During the first half of the 20th century, Door County experienced many economic evolutions. The demise of the logging industry, the arrival of early tourism, and the establishment of cherry orchards have all had lasting impacts on the culture and landscape we see today. The explosion of the cherry crop in Door County from 1910 to the 1920s saw hundreds of thousands of cherry trees planted across the peninsula. The sheer quantity of fruit to pick quickly outgrew the availability of family and local labor as Door County’s ‘Cherryland’ moniker became known across the country. Door County orchards soon depended on contracted labor to assist in the harvest every summer, first aided by Native American families and camps of young people recruited from cities.
However, Wisconsin’s history of migrant labor did not start in Door County. The first practices of migratory agriculture work in Wisconsin date back to the early 1900s, as sugar beet companies in south-central Wisconsin began recruiting workers, primarily of Belgian descent. These Belgians were gradually replaced by German-Russians, who like the Belgians before them, eventually acquired their own land and farms, or gained full time employment. The dependence on migratory labor was heightened after World War I, as new regulations restricted European immigrants to the United States. Beginning in the late 1920s, Wisconsin’s sugar beet industry was recruiting large quantities of Mexican workers from Texas and the Southwest known as los betabeleros. Until the start of World War II, Mexican and Mexican-Americans remained the principal migratory workers in Wisconsin.
As the United States entered World War II in late 1941, the decrease in manpower available in domestically led to questions regarding the resources needed to harvest the crops that would fuel the war effort. Two programs were established to help provide farms in the United States with the labor they needed to maximize production. The Mexican Farm Labor Agreement, or Bracero Program, focused specifically on negotiations between the Mexican Government and the United States, bringing in millions of workers to the country between 1942 and 1964 while outlining protections regarding wages and working conditions. Unfortunately, the applications of these agreements fell short as workers were subjected to substandard living conditions and discrimination. The Emergency Farm Labor Program assigned the State Extension Services of the Department of Agriculture with recruiting and placing domestic and foreign laborers. These programs together brought several thousand workers to Wisconsin from out-of-state, and many from outside of the country. These included peoples of Jamaican, Mexican, Barbadian, Bahamian, and Honduran nationalities, and even German and Italian prisoners of war.
Orchards throughout Door County relied heavily on these programs throughout the war and beyond. With only 80 foreign workers placed in 1943, the numbers quickly surged to over 1200 in both 1944 and 1945, with the peak population of foreign workers in Door County hitting almost 2500 in 1946. This peak year coincided with the largest harvest of cherries at the time in the state, an estimated 40 million pounds of fruit picked, creating $5.2 million in farm value, with 60% of the harvesting done by foreign laborers. The peak year of 1946 saw larger orchards in Sturgeon Bay employing upwards of 800 migrant workers each during the picking season.
While the Emergency Farm Labor Program was terminated in 1948, the Bracero Program continued with a variety of agreements between the United States and Mexico to supply migrant laborers throughout the country until 1964. The Wisconsin State Employment Service regained the responsibility of placing domestic and foreign laborers in the state following World War II, with the first county office opening to assist the 1949 cherry harvest in Door County. The WSES continued to assist orchards throughout the 1950s, bringing in up to 10,000 migrant workers a year at the peak of the cherry industry. When mechanical shakers began to replace hand-picking of cherries commercially in late in the 1950s, the industry was in decline. Door County’s cherry industry might not be what it was in the mid-20th century, but remnants of the labor done by those who helped build it are still here. So, whether it is your appreciation of cherry blossoms in late spring, spending time with your family on the orchard, or enjoying that slice of pie – know you are enjoying the fruits of hard, often overlooked labor.
References
González, Sergio M. Mexicans in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2017.
Irwin, Emily. “Migrant Labor and Door County Cherries.” Wisconsin 101, UW Madison – Department of History, https://wi101.wisc.edu/migrant-labor-and-door-county-cherries/.
Sorden, L. G. (Leland George), Margaret Salick, Erven J Long, and University of Wisconsin. Extension Service. The Wisconsin Farm Labor Program, 1943-1947. [Madison, Wis.?]: Agricultural Extension Service, College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin, 1948.