Italian farmers (owners and tenants) who employ their own countrymen in preference to other races, but as the number of Portuguese and Italian laborers is not large enough to supply their demand, these races are not found working for employers of other races. Most of the Chinese are employed by Chinese tenants, who also hire some Japanese and Koreans. Japanese tenants here employ a few East Indians in addition to the large number of their countrymen. White farmers employ all races, but Japanese chiefly.

In the sugar-beet industry, as has been indicated, there are four periods of seasonal work when large numbers of laborers are required. Between 6,000 and 7,000 men were required for the hand work in California beet fields in 1909. Of this number fully 4,500 were Japanese, about 1,000 were Mexicans, probably 600 East Indians, and the remainder members of miscellaneous races, including some German-Russians and Portuguese and a few Chinese. In 1909 the Japanese were found in every beet-raising district in the State, except one in the southern part, which they avoided because of the unfavorable outcome at one time of their contracts there. The Mexicans are found mainly in southern California, in three districts-in one they have a practical monopoly, in another they form three-fourths of the force, while in the third they are outnumbered ten to one by Japanese. In 1909 425 East Indians, or about fourfifths of the total number of beet workers of that race, were found in one district. An effort to settle German-Russians in one beet district as available hand workers failed, for they soon left for more attractive work in other places.

The seasonal hand work of transplanting celery from the seed beds to the fields, in Orange County, is practically all performed by Japanese, some 600 being so employed, and about 400 being employed for the harvest. In the hop industry of California the Japanese do practically all of the hand work connected with the pruning, stringing, and training of vines and in some districts they do the greater part of the picking. In the Wheatland hop district, however, the majority of the 2,500 pickers are white persons. The greater part of the strawberry land of the State is controlled by Japanese tenants, and during the harvest they employ their countrymen to do the hand work.

Thus it is seen that the greater part of the teaming and other regular work on the farms of the State, as a whole, is done by white persons, but that in the seasonal hand work involved in intensive farming the Asiatic laborers predominate. Of the Asiatic races in 1909 the Japanese greatly outnumbered the Chinese, Koreans, and East Indians. The Italians, Portuguese, Dalmatians, and Armenians are employed largely by their countrymen farming for themselves, either as owners or as tenants.

RACE CHANGES AND THEIR CAUSES.

The rapid settlement of California, due to the development of gold mining, furnished a market for food products that before long Ted many men to engage in agriculture in the river valleys. In many cases the adaptability of certain districts for producing fruit was shown by the few trees set out by miners near the cabins. The

a

first agricultural work was done by white men, but as white labor was both expensive and scarce, being attracted to other industries, the ranchers soon turned to the abundant supply of Chinese. Thousands of Chinese were attracted to the State by the discovery of gold and later by the work offered them in building the Central Pacific Railroad. The opposition to Chinese in the mining districts drove great numbers of them into agricultural work, and when thousands of them were discharged from the Central Pacific upon its completion in 1869 many of them also drifted into farm work.

In the Sacramento Valley, below the city of Sacramento (one of the oldest farming sections in the State), the Chinese were employed in considerable numbers in the early sixties, and soon were doing practically all of the work. As the acreage cultivated increased, the number of Chinese laborers also increased, so that this race is closely identified with the development of this district. Farther up the Sacramento River, about Marysville, the Chinese were employed very early. The hop picking of the Wheatland district was at first carried on by Indians, but before long the Chinese were employed, and at the time of the passage of the exclusion law they predominated in that industry. The Newcastle district became important as a fruit-shipping district soon after the Central Pacific Railroad was completed. The Chinese were employed there as orchard laborers from the beginning, and their numbers increased with the extension of the industry. The intensive work connected with the introduction of grape growing in Fresno County in the early seventies offered another important field for large gangs of Chinese.

a Chinese immigration into the United States. (Statistics prior to 1857 taken from the report of the California senate committee's report on Chinese immigration, 1876, p. 236. The remainder of the statistics are from the Annual Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the year ending June 30, 1905, pp. 38-41.)

The few white men at first employed were soon displaced, and as the industry developed the Chinese came in still larger numbers. The first beet-sugar factory in the State, established in 1872, employed Chinese both in the factory and in the field, and the second factory, built in 1888, also employed them in the fields. The Chinese continued to be employed in the beet fields almost to the exclusion of other races until after 1891, and in other sections of the State-the Vaca Valley, the Pajaro Valley, the Suisun Valley, the Santa Clara Valley, and in Sonoma and Napa counties-the Chinese for years were the predominant element in the farm-labor supply. They were employed almost exclusively in the seasonal hand work incidental to intensive agriculture until about 1890, and they did a large part of the regular ranch work and some work in the allied packing and canning establishments. The Chinese also did much work on general ranches and in dairies which is now done almost exclusively by white The citrus-fruit industry of southern California was of little importance prior to 1890, and only a few Chinese found employment in it. The celery industry of Orange County, dating from 1892, started with white persons, who soon disappeared, and Chinese, who had been employed to a certain extent in the harvesting of potatoes, corn, and other crops of the district, took their places. The Chinese in the State continued to increase in number until the passage of the exclusion law in 1882, and they predominated in much of the agricultural work until the early nineties, when the limitations upon their immigration began to be felt.

The position early gained by the Chinese in the agricultural industries was due to their working well and for low wages and causing the ranchers little inconvenience. The Chinese worked faithfully and for longer hours and less pay than white laborers. They were organized into "gangs," and so could be easily secured in large numbers during the harvest season. The Chinese accepted old "shacks" or buildings of any kind to live in, and always provided their own board, so that they caused no expense or inconvenience to employers in this regard, as white men did. They would stay on a ranch year after year, whereas white men were more migratory and restless, and those of a desirable class were ambitious. But by the early nineties the Chinese became scarcer, through death and returning to China, and the men remaining were becoming older and slower workers.

About the time that the immigration of Chinese fell off the Japanese began coming to California and gradually entered agricultural work. One of the first districts entered by the Japanese was the Vaca Valley, where several members of that race came in the winter of 1887-88. In 1890 eight Japanese came to Fresno, but left because of the hostile attitude of white men. The following year, however, about 30 Japanese entered the vineyards of that locality. They entered the Newcastle district in 1891. In 1892 13 Japanese were employed as hop pickers in the Pajaro Valley, and about this time they first appeared in the Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin country and in the Marysville and Suisun districts. Within the next three or four years they made their appearance as beet-field laborers and as fruit pickers in the Santa Clara and other valleys. The volume of Japanese immigration rapidly increased until from 1900 to 1906 there was a large

influx of members of that race. They were soon the most numerous race of farm laborers, and having secured a foothold in the various districts by displacing other races, they came to dominate the labor situation in most localities devoted to intensive farming. The Japanese were later in entering agricultural work in southern California than in the northern part of the State. In the citrus-fruit industry they had but recently entered two or three localities in 1900, but each subsequent year they secured work in more fruit-growing centers. Their employment on most southern California ranches dates back to 1904 or 1905 only. In the Tulare citrus district the Japanese were first employed about 1904 and they are still outnumbered by white men. In the celery industry of Orange County the Japanese were first employed in 1902.

In the State of California as a whole the Japanese have now come to occupy the position occupied by the Chinese in the early nineties. As previous figures have shown, they are the most numerous race of temporary laborers in practically every district where specialized agriculture is carried on.

In most localities the Japanese have displaced or replaced Chinese, but in a few places they have displaced the white race, or at least have taken positions which were formerly occupied exclusively by white persons. This is especially true of the citrus-fruit industry. This industry has grown most rapidly since the Chinese-exclusion law was passed, and Chinese have never been extensively employed in it. The industry developed with white labor and a small number of Mexicans. As has been stated, the Japanese gradually entered this work until now they outnumber the white men. An investigation of 23 citrus-fruit ranches in southern California employing Japanese showed that they had displaced white men on 18 ranches, white men and Chinese on one, white men and Mexicans on another, Mexicans on two, and Chinese on the other one. The same is true of Tulare County, where the Japanese displaced white men and Mexicans on the citrus-fruit ranches. The strawberry industry, which was controlled largely by white men in the nineties, has now passed into the hands of the Japanese, who have greatly extended the acreage devoted to berry growing.

In the hop industry the Japanese have come to do the hand work connected with the pruning and training of vines, and in some districts, most of the picking formerly done by Chinese, but in the Wheatland district and in Sonoma County the greater part of the picking is now done by white persons, who have been brought to the districts since the Chinese have disappeared. In a few districts where white people had come to occupy positions formerly held by Chinese they in turn have been displaced by Japanese.

There are several hundred Koreans engaged in agricultural work in California. They are found principally on the farms in the Lower Sacramento River district, in the grape industry about Fresno, and picking oranges near Riverside and Redlands. Very often they are found working with Japanese "gangs" and by many of the farmers they are not distinguished from Japanese.

The Japanese were younger, neater, and more active than the Chinese. They were of a polite and pleasant disposition, whereas the Chinese in many places had become surly and suspicious of white men as a result of the long-continued opposition to them on the part

of white laborers. In some places there was some reluctance on the part of many employers to hiring Japanese, but gradually they were employed in one district after another, and by being accommodating and doing more work than the older Chinese, they were received with greater favor and were employed in increasing numbers in the rapidly expanding agricultural communities. Yet, as will be seen later, within the last few years the attitude of ranchers generally toward Japanese has become unfavorable.

In most cases they at first offered to work for less pay than other races. Indeed, underbidding the Chinese and white men, where white men were employed, was common for some years and in most communities this method was used by Japanese to secure the first employment. In one community the Japanese are said to have first worked for 35 or 40 cents per day, where Chinese were being paid $5 per week in the early nineties. In another valley the contract prices of the Japanese were first estimated on a basis of 45 cents as against $1 for Chinese, and in the later nineties, at day work, they were paid 75 to 90 cents per day when Chinese were paid $1. In a third district they were first paid 70 cents per day, and for two or three years their wages varied from 60 to 90 cents, as against $1.25 per day for Chinese and $1 per day, including board, for white men. In some places the organization of Japanese under "bosses" made possible the effective underbidding by that race. The "contractors" had large "gangs" of recent immigrants under their control and were in position to make contracts for large numbers of men. They were anxious to secure work and would offer special inducements as regards contract prices in order to get employment for their laborers. With underbidding and diligent work as their entering wedge, and with increasing numbers and a "gang" organization under labor "contractors" or "bosses as effective and convenient for ranchers as that of the Chinese, they soon became the most important element in the labor supply, and since 1905 have come to dominate the supply of seasonal workers engaged in the production of intensive crops. Like the Chinese, they also appealed to many employers because they were willing to put up with the old, ramshackle quarters of the Chinese, and did not require to be boarded by the employer.

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Before the close of the nineties the wages paid Japanese had begun to rise, and from 1900 to 1906, when the influx of Japanese was at its height, the increase in their wages continued. They were paid as much as Chinese, and the piece rates, on which basis most of them were paid in seasonal work, were usually equal to those paid to other races. The great disparity between the contract price at first asked by the Japanese and that for white men has tended to disappear, largely as a result of the organization of Japanese laborers under "bosses." In a few districts the Japanese contractors have associations the main object of which has been to keep up the contract prices by reducing the competition and cutting of prices among contractors. In some places where they have no organization, the "bosses" have come to a mutual understanding as to the rates to be charged. These associations of contractors have in several localities fixed the maximum wage to be paid the employees, and thus have curbed the excessive demands of the laborers. In very few cases in 1909 were the piece rates less for Japanese than for other races. On a time basis in most communities, however, they received less than white men.