They have cooked, spun, and knitted, in addition to their almost equal work in the fields.

Very few of the peasant men or women can either read or write.

They are devoted to their children, strong in their family feeling, even to remote relationships, and clannish in their community life.
The entire family has been upheaved, and is striving to adjust itself to its new surroundings.

The men, for the most part, work on railroad extensions through the summer, under the direction of a _padrone_, who finds the work for them, regulates the amount of their wages, and supplies them with food.

The first effect of immigration upon the women is that of idleness.