Clearing trees and starting crops on virgin fields was harsh and backbreaking work. This makes harvesting clams a backbreaking task. Mainly poor Chinese immigrants were hired to do this backbreaking reclamation work. Harvesting cane required backbreaking long days in sugar cane fields under the hot island sun. Despite this backbreaking workload, the job was in artistic terms a superb opportunity for Haydn. It was backbreaking labour that went on day and night. Dragging it all the way from the distant spring becomes a backbreaking task. Many walked off the land after years of backbreaking work. Puddling was backbreaking and extremely hot work. This is a backbreaking job, said to be "the worst in the poultry industry".