CHAPTER VI.

AGRICULTURAL LABOR, DOMESTIC SERVICE.

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SEC. 1. GENERAL.-There is very little legislation on this subject. South Carolina has laws relating to sharing of crops with laborers, and making penal the breach of a contract for agricultural labor." There has never been any attempt at the regulation of the hours of agricultural labor or domestic service. The antitrust laws do not in some States apply to agricultural labor or to combinations of farmers

1 In South Carolina:

CHAPTER 85.-Contracts with, employment and payment of wages of, laborers. (a)

SEC. 2215. All contracts made between owners of land, their agents, administrators or executors, and laborers shall be witnessed by one or more disinterested persons, and, at the request of either party, be duly executed before a trial justice, whose duty it shall be to read and explain the same to the parties. Such contracts shall clearly set forth the conditions upon which the laborer or laborers engaged to work, embracing the length of time, the amount of money to be paid, and when; if it be on shares of crops, what portion thereof.

SEC. 2216. Whenever labor is performed under contract on shares of any crop, such crop shall be gathered and divided off before it is removed from the place where it was planted, harvested or gathered. When desired by either party to the contract, such division shall be made by a disinterested person, who shall be chosen by and with the consent of the contracting parties. If the parties fail to agree upon any disinterested persons, or if within ten days after such division complaint is made that it has been unfairly made, it shall be the duty of the trial justice residing nearest the place where such crop is planted, harvested or gathered to cause, under his immediate supervision, such equitable division as may be stipulated in the contract. Such disinterested person or trial justice shall receive reasonable compensation for such service, to be paid by both of the contracting parties, according to their several interests, except in case of an attempt by one of the contracting parties willfully to defraud the others, and then such compensation shall be paid by the party so attempting to defraud the other. When such division has been made each party shall be free to dispose as they see fit of their several portions: Provided, That if either party be in debt to the other for any obligation incurred under contract, the amount of said indebtedness may be then and there settled and paid by such portion of the share of the party so indebted as may be agreed upon by the parties themselves, or set apart by the trial justice, or any person chosen to divide said crop.

SEC. 2217. Laborers who assist in making any crop on shares, or for wages in money or other valuable consideration, shall have a lien thereon to the extent of the amount due them for such labor, next in priority to the lien of the landlord for rent; and as between such laborers there shall be no preference. Such portion of the crop to them belonging, or such amount of money or other valuable consideration as may be due them, shall be recoverable by an action in any court of competent jurisdiction.

SEC. 2218. Unless otherwise provided by special contract, all persons who employ laborers upon plantations or elsewhere by the day, week, month or year shall pay such laborers or employees in lawful money.

2 See Chap. I, Art. E, § 2.

In South Carolina (Crim. Laws):

SEC. 288. Whenever such contract is violated, or attempted to be violated, or broken, or whenever fraud is practiced or attempted to be practiced, by either party to such contract or contracts, at any time before the conditions of the same are fulfilled

to increase the price of produce, etc." (See Chap. X, § 3.) But the Texas statute (March 30, 1887) exempting "agricultural products or live stock while in the hands of the raiser," has been held unconstitutional. (See Chap. II, Art. B, § 7, above.) The North Carolina law of 1899 contains a similar provision.

SEC. 2. LIENS ON CROPS.-It is very commonly provided that croppers, or laborers working land upon shares, shall have a lien upon the crops for their wages, or other share. (See also Chap. II, Art. B, § 8.)

and the parties released therefrom, complaint may be made before a trial justice. If the offending party be the land owner or owners, his, her or their agent or agents, and fraud has been practiced or attempted to be practiced, either in keeping in any account or accounts between him, her and them or the other party or parties to such contract or contracts, or in the division of the crop or crops, or the payment of money or other valuable consideration, upon conviction such offender or offenders shall be fined in a sum of not less than five dollars nor more than one hundred ($100) dollars, or be imprisoned not less than ten days nor more than thirty days; or if it be a disinterested party chosen to make a division or divisions of crops as provided in Chapter LXXXV, Article 2, of these statutes, he, she or they shall be liable for prosecution as for a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined in a sum of not less than five nor more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a period not less than ten days nor more than thirty days.

If the offending party be a laborer, or laborers, and the offense consists either in failing willfully and without just cause to give the labor reasonably required of him, her or them by the terms of such contract, or in other respects shall refuse to comply with the conditions of such contract or contracts, or shall fraudulently make use of or carry away from the place where the crop or crops he, she or they may be working or [are] planted any portion of said crop or crops, or anything connected therewith or belonging thereto, such person or persons so offending shall be liable to prosecution, and on conviction before any trial justice be fined in a sum of not less than five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a period of not less than ten days or more than thirty days.

SEC. 289. Any trial justice, or other officer before whom complaint is made, and whose duty it is to try such cases as provided in the preceding section, who shall offend against the true intent and meaning of Chapter LXXXV, Article 2, of these statutes, or shall refuse to hear and determine impartially all cases that may be brought before him under the provisions of said chapter, and all peace officers whose duty it is to apprehend all offenders against the laws of the State who shall refuse to perform their duty in bringing to justice any and all offenders against the preceding section and the above mentioned chapter, shall be liable to a charge of malfeasance in office, and upon proof to conviction shall be forthwith removed from office and fined a sum not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars.

SEC. 290. Any person or persons who shall offer to any laborer or employee, at the time when the wages of such laborer or employee are due and payable by agreement, unless otherwise provided for by special contract, as compensation for labor, or services performed, checks, or scrips of any description, known as plantation checks, payable at some future time, or in the shops or stores of employers, in lieu of lawful money, shall be liable to indictment and punishment, by a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, according to the discretion of the court: Provided, The word "checks" herein shall not be construed so as to prohibit the giving of checks upon any of the authorized banks of deposit or issue in this State.

3 Tex. 4847 a, 13; Mon. P. C. 325; Ala. 1891, 202, 3; Miss. 1890, 36, 13. (See, for these laws, report of Professor Jenks.)

1Thus, in Idaho (1893, Feb. 27, Chap. 3):

SEC. 1. Any person who does any labor on a farm or land in tilling the same, or in cultivating, harvesting, or housing any crop or crops, raised thereon has a lien on all such crop or crops for such labor; Provided, That the interest of any lessor or lessors in any crop where the premises are leased in consideration of a share of the crop raised thereon, is not subject to such lien.

SEC. 2. Any person claiming the benefit of this chapter, must within sixty days after the close of said work or labor file for record with the county recorder of the county in which said work and labor was performed, a claim which shall be in substance in accordance with the provisions of section 7, of chapter 2, of this act, so far

as the same may be applicable, which said claim shall be verified, as in said section provided, and said liens may be enforced in the civil action, in the same manner, as near as may be, as provided in section 11 of chapter 2 of this act.

In Mississippi:

SEC. 2682 (as amended by chapter 71, acts of 1894). Every employer shall have a lien on the share or interest of his employee in any crop made under such employment, for all advances of money, and for the fair market value of other things advanced by him, or any one at his request, for supplies for himself and his family and business during the existence of such employment, which lien the employer may offset, recoup, or otherwise assert and maintain; and every employee, laborer, cropper, part owner, overseer or manager, or other person who may aid by his labor to make, gather, or prepare for sale or market any crop, shall have a lien on the interest of the person who contracts with him for such labor for his wages, share or interest in such crop, whatever may be the kind of wages or the nature of the interest, which lien such employee, laborer, cropper, part owner, overseer or manager, or other person may offset, recoup or otherwise assert and maintain. And such liens shall be paramount to all liens and incumbrances or right of any kind created by or against the person so contracting for such assistance, except the lien of the lessor of the land on which the crop is made, for rent and supplies furnished, as provided in the chapter on "Landlord and Tenant."

SEC. 2683. Said liens shall exist by virtue of the relation of the parties as employer and employee, and without any writing, or, if in writing, without recording.

In South Carolina (§ 2513. See also § 1, note 1, above):

Laborers working on shares of crops, or for wages in money or other valuable consideration, as hereinafter provided, shall have a lien upon said crop or crops, in whose hands soever it may be. Such portion of the crop or crops to them belonging, or such amount of money or other valuable consideration due, shall be recoverable by an action in any court of competent jurisdiction.

In Alabama (§ 3065):

When one party furnishes the land and the team to cultivate it, and another party furnishes the labor, with stipulations, express or implied, to divide the crop between them in certain proportions, the contract of hire shall be held to exist, and the laborer shall have a lien upon the crop produced by his labor for the value of the portion of the crop to which he is entitled; and such lien shall have the same force and effect, and shall be enforced in the same manner, and under the same conditions, and in the same cases as the lien in favor of a landlord; but no more of the crop shall be levied on than may be necessary to satisfy the demand.

In North Dakota (§ 4826):

Any person who performs services for another in the capacity of farm laborer between the first day of April and the first day of December in any year, shall have a lien on all crops of every kind grown, raised or harvested by the person for whom the services were performed during said time as security for the payment of any wages due or owing to such person for services so performed, and said lien shall have priority over all other liens, chattel mortgages or incumbrances, excepting, however, seed grain and threshers' liens; Provided, however, That the wages for which a lien may be obtained must be reasonable, and not in excess of that which is usually charged for the same kind of work in the locality where the labor is performed; Provided, further, That in case any such person without cause quits his employment before the expiration of the time for which he is employed, or if he shall be discharged for cause, then he shall not be entitled to a lien as herein provided.

In Tennessee:

SEC. 2771. Whenever any person shall perform any labor, or render service to another in accordance with a contract, written or verbal, for cultivating soil, and shall produce a crop, he shall have a lien upon the crop produced, which shall be the results of his labor, for the payment of such wages as were agreed upon in the

contract.

SEC. 2772. This lien shall exist three months from the fifteenth day of November, of the year in which the labor is performed, and shall be enforced by execution or attachment, as landlord's liens are enforced; Provided, That an amount of such labor rendered be kept and sworn to before some justice of the peace, or clerk of the court issuing the writ of distraint of attachment.

SEC. 2773. This lien shall in no wise abridge or interfere with the landlord's lien for rent or supplies, as now established by law; but the same shall be second to the landlord's lien, and none other.

In Washington:

SEC. 1695. Any person who shall do labor upon any farm or land, in tilling the same or in sowing or harvesting or thrashing any grain, as laborer, contractor, or otherwise, or laboring upon, or securing or assisting in securing or housing any crop or crops sown, raised, or thrashed thereon during the year in which said work or labor was done, such person shall have a lien upon all such crops as shall have been raised upon all or any of such land, for such work or labor, and every landlord shall have a lien upon the crops grown or growing upon the demised lands of any year for the rents accrued or accruing for such year, whether the same is paid wholly or in part in money or specific articles of property, or products of the premises, or labor, and also for the faithful performance of the lease; and the lien created by the provisions of this section shall be a preferred lien, and shall be prior to all other liens.

SEC. 1696. Any person claiming the benefit of this chapter must, within forty days after the close of said work and labor, or after the expiration of the term, or after the expiration of each year of the lease, for which any lands were demised, file for record with the county auditor of the county in which said work and labor was performed, or said demised lands are situated, a claim.