E-text prepared by Meredith Minter Dixon (dixonm@pobox.com)
Across the Fruited Plain
by Florence Crannell Means
with illustrations by Janet Smalley
New York : Friendship Press, c1940
Plans and procedures for using Across The Fruited Plain will befound in "A Junior Teacher's Guide on the Migrants," by E. MaeYoung. Photographs of migrant homes and migrant Centers will befound in the picture story book Jack Of The Bean Fields, by NinaMillen.
This book is dedicated to a whole troop of children "across thefruited plain": Tomoko, Willie May, Fei-Kin, Nawamana, Candelariaand Isabell, and to the newest child of all--our little MaryMargaret.
CONTENTS
- The House Of Beecham
- The Cranberry Bog
- Shucking Oysters
- Peekaneeka?
- Cissy From The Onion Marshes
- At The Edge Of A Mexican Village
- The Boy Who Didn't Know God
- The Hopyards
- Seth Thomas Strikes Twelve
FOREWORD
Dear Mary and Bonnie and Jack and the rest of my readers:
Maybe you've heard about the migrants lately, or have seenpictures of them in the magazines. But have you thought that manyof them are families much like yours and mine, travelinguncomfortably in rattly old jalopies while they go from one cropto another, and living crowded in rickety shacks when they stopfor work?
There have always been wandering farm laborers because so manycrops need but a few workers part of the year and a great many atharvest. A two-thousand-acre peach orchard needs only thirtyworkers most of the year, and one thousand seven hundred atpicking time. Lately, though, there have been more migrants thanever. One reason is that while in the past we used to eat freshpeas, beans, strawberries, and the like only in summer, now wewant fresh fruits and vegetables all year round. To supply ourwants, great quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables must beraised in the warm climates wher