By 1900 the Japanese found work in more agricultural communities of the State, and also by that time practically all of the railroads in the West were employing large numbers of them as section hands, paying them $1 or more per day, and the work was regular. At the same time they found employment in construction work, the fisheries, and other branches of industry. There were also larger opportunities for employment in the Pacific coast cities. All of these things combined to offer the Japanese numerous opportunities for employment and to distribute the population over a wider territory. This fact, with the rapid growth of the fruit industry, the decreasing number of Chinese, the disinclination of most white men to work at seasonal employments in the rural communities during prosperous times, when regular work at good wages could be found elsewhere, and the effective organization of the Japanese under the "boss" system explain the rise of their wages which took place. The explanation of the more rapid rise of Japanese wages since 1906 is found in these same facts, and in addition to these in the restrictions placed upon Japanese immigration to the United States and the growth of independent farming and business by members of that race. With prosperous times and an inadequate labor supply, with new opportunities opened for them, and especially with restrictions placed upon further immigration, the wages of Japanese have increased more than 50 per cent within fifteen years, and they have ceased to greatly underbid other laborers. Although Japanese wages have continued to rise and to approach the level of the wages of white men since 1900, while the greatest numbers of Japanese were coming to the United States, white farm laborers' wages have been increasing very slowly during that period. That the wages of white farm hands have failed to rise in proportion to the rise of wages in other industries is attributed to the presence of Japanese in large numbers.

About the time restrictions were placed upon the immigration of Japanese, the East Indians entered the California agricultural communities. The East Indians, coming from the north (Washington and British Columbia), appeared in California during the winter of 1907-8. In the summer of 1908 they found work on some farms about Marysville, Newcastle, and in the Vaca Valley. Later in the fall they picked grapes about Fresno and also went into the Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin country. During the winter of 1908-9 a few found work in the Tulare orange orchards and one small gang" of orange pickers was employed in southern California. In the spring of 1909 about 600 of them were found working in the beet fields two groups in southern California, while in one district in northern California more than 400 of them were employed. The East Indians were found engaged in seasonal hand work on many ranches formerly employing Japanese. A few thousand East Indians have entered the United States within the last three years. They are a filthy, ignorant, and despised race, and are considered the least desirable immigrants in the State. Employers have been very reluctant to employ them and their success in securing work has been due mainly to the dissatisfaction with Japanese and a general scarcity of seasonal laborers. They were employed in some communities as a means of relief from the hold of the Japanese upon the work of the community. They go about in groups with a leader, but their organization is not as effective or as convenient as that of the other

orientals. They are generally considered the least efficient race thus far employed on ranches. At first they would work for nearly any wage and have generally been discriminated against in the wages paid. In 1908 they were very generally paid 50 cents per day less than Japanese and other races and in 1909 about 25 cents less per day. Even at the lower wage they are considered more expensive laborers than other races because of their inefficiency. In only a few cases have they been paid as much as Japanese. With time in which to gain experience, however, they may improve materially.

The reasons given above show how the Asiatics have come to predominate in the seasonal work of these industries, but there are further reasons for the comparatively small place held by white persons in the temporary hand work connected with intensive agriculture. In many places where Japanese for any reason were employed to work with white persons, the strong antipathy on the part of white persons for Japanese caused many white laborers to object, and often they have left the work, thus making necessary the employment of more Japanese. In some establishments the hostility of white persons has led to the discharge of the Japanese and in a few the objecting white men have been discharged. In all of these industries where disagreeable work is performed for a considerable time by oriental races, or by very recent immigrants of any race, the "American" laborer comes to acquire a contempt for it because it is done by his foreign competitor. He regards it as too servile for an American to engage in. Thus an odium is attached to much of the work done by Japanese. It is not regarded as "white man's work." This psychological element has deterred many desirable white men from entering these industries. Those who can still be secured in the lower positions on ranches are often irregular in their habits, and because of insobriety and general untrustworthiness, are usually unsatisfactory. Furthermore the members of the white races lack organization and require better living conditions than the orientals. The urgency of the demand for large numbers of laborers at certain periods in the production of these special crops and the numbers and convenience of Asiatics in supplying these demands for seasonal workers have tended to overemphasize their place in the field of farm labor for the State as a whole. There are thousands of white persons working on general farms and in all branches of work on the diversified farms of smaller districts not specifically dealt with above. As has been pointed out, even in some of the localities heretofore dealt with in detail, the number of white seasonal hand workers is not much less than the number of Asiatics.

White men have been employed in agricultural work in California from the earliest years, but when Chinese could be secured in unlimited numbers the white men were not numerous in comparison. The restrictions placed upon the immigration of Chinese in 1882 shut off the supply of laborers of that race and tended later to give more employment to white persons in the rapidly expanding industries. In the Wheatland district already mentioned, the picking of hops, which was formerly done almost exclusively by Chinese, is now largely performed by white persons. In some industries, such as the growing of citrus fruit, the apple industry of the Pajaro Valley, and the cantaloupe industry of the Imperial Valley, which have been developed since the enactment of the Chinese-exclusion law, white

laborers were the most numerous for some years, until their position was threatened by the recent large immigration of Japanese. In a few places, where Japanese secured control of the labor situation, their independent spirit and the increase in wages resulting from their control have led ranchers to induce more white persons to come to compete with them.

The position occupied by certain other non-Asiatic races which are locally distinguished from "Americans" and "miscellaneous white persons," will be pointed out.

During the Spanish and Mexican domination of California the Indians did a large share of the work on the large ranches, but they have not been extensively hired since the American occupation of the State. The number of Indian hand laborers has been growing less each year. They are still employed to a certain extent, however, in picking hops and grapes.

The Mexicans have for many years been an important factor in the farm work in southern California, where they engage in both team work and hand work. In two beet-growing districts they outnumber the Japanese, and in picking citrus fruit they have been extensively employed. A few Mexicans are employed in the Tulare citrus belt and also in grape picking in Fresno County, but they are not important compared with the more numerously represented races.

Italians are numerous in some sections of the State. Many members of this race were found in farm work as early as 1870, and their number has constantly increased since that date. In the Vaca Valley some have been working as seasonal laborers while developing small ranches of their own in the foothills. Many Italians are found working in the vineyards in all parts of the State, but nearly always they are employed by their countrymen. In the lower Sacramento River district they are working for their countrymen, usually on bean and asparagus ranches. Some were brought from the East fifteen years ago to work in the celery fields of Orange County, but not many are employed there now. In other places, and especially engaged in truck farming near the cities, are many Italians, always working for Italian farmers.

A considerable number of Portuguese laborers are found, especially in the lower Sacramento River district, and in Fresno and Kings counties, but they are usually working for their countrymen. Portuguese from the Azores began coming to California in small numbers more than fifty years ago.

In Fresno County there formerly were many German-Russians and Armenians working as hand laborers, but of the latter race, very few, and of the other, less than formerly, are now engaged in farm work for other races. In the later eighties and early nineties, when the Chinese as a result of the exclusion law became insufficient to meet the labor needs of the growing grape industry, and before the Japanese became so numerous, the recent GermanRussian and Armenian immigrants were employed extensively in the vineyards. Most of the Armenians have now secured farms for themselves or have gone into business, as have also a number of the German-Russians. The German-Russians (men, women, and children) do a great deal of the fruit cutting at present, but not much of the picking, as they have gone into factory work in the city of Fresno.

In the Pajaro Valley the Dalmatians were first employed as laborers in the orchards in 1887, and to-day there are more than a thousand laborers of that race engaged in the apple orchards during the busy season, but they practically all work for Dalmatian farmers. Some 300 Spaniards were employed in fruit work in the Vaca Valley for the first time in 1908. Some of the Greeks, who are extensively employed in railroad construction work, drift into temporary agricultural work in various districts, but only in small numbers.

PROGRESS OF RACES.

The greater part of the farms of the State are owned by the miscellaneous white" races. As has been stated, the "miscellaneous white" men do not do much of the seasonal hand work in California, but they are found mainly in the higher occupations-regular employees, teamsters, foremen, etc.-requiring more skill. The more ambitious of the white employees either secure farms for themselves or become foremen, superintendents, etc., or, as is often the case, they soon leave agricultural work for more attractive and better paid work in the cities. The better opportunities open in the industries of the cities and the greater attractions of town life have taken the best and most reliable white help away from the farms.

The Italians, Portuguese, Dalmatians, and Armenians are progressive races. The Armenians and Portuguese own most of the land they farm, while the Italians and Dalmatians own a considerable portion, but lease still more, of the land they control. The farmers of these races have generally risen from farm labor as their first occupation in the community, and the laborers of these races now occupy all of the best positions on the ranches of their countrymen. The German-Russians have become independent farmers in_many instances, but the majority of the members of this race about Fresno are working for farmers of other races or in factories in town. There are still enough laborers of this race in Fresno County to do a great deal of seasonal hand work.

The Mexicans in southern California are generally employed as hand workers, and although many of them have been in the State for years, only a few of the native-born offspring own farms and a few lease beet land in one locality. They are good horsemen and are often employed as teamsters in the southern part of the State. They are generally lazy and lack ambition to rise to higher industrial positions.

Of the Asiatics the Japanese have been the most ambitious and progressive, while the Koreans, of whom there are not many, and the East Indians, who have only recently immigrated to the United States, have made little progress. The Chinese who entered these intensive agricultural districts at the beginning of most of these industries, were at first employed to do only the more disagreeable handwork at special seasons, but they did more and more of the work until in some districts they were the regular employees doing both handwork and some of the teaming. In fact, on some ranches no white men, unless perhaps a foreman, were employed. The Chinese very early began to lease farms, usually for a share of the crop, and they have purchased a few farms in some localities, but they

have never assumed the great importance as independent farmers that the Japanese have. At present the Chinese are noticeable as lessees in the Newcastle district, the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin country, in the Vaca Valley, the Suisun Valley, and about Marysville. The Japanese were first employed only as seasonal hand workers, but as they became more numerous and more extensively employed, they were hired on some ranches as regular employees for miscellaneous work also, and, in a few cases, they are now employed by white ranchers as teamsters. Their progress and employment in all of the higher occupations in the agricultural industries as a whole, however, has not been due so much to employment of them by white farmers directly, as to the leasing of farms to them. They had not been in the country very long before they followed the example of the Chinese by leasing land for themselves, but in this regard they have been much more ambitious and aggressive than the Chinese were. The leasing at first was for a share of the crop with the landowner retaining control of the work and deciding what crops should be grown, but later cash tenantry, which gives the tenant more complete control of the land so long as he pays the rent when due, has become more extensive. The Japanese have purchased some farms, but their ownership of land has not yet become an important factor in the situation.

The extent to which Asiatics at present own and lease land is shown by a few of the districts following: In the Newcastle district Japanese owned 442 acres and leased 164 farms with a total acreage of 6,550, or approximately 7,000 acres owned and leased by them. It was estimated in 1909 that in this way the Japanese controlled 60 per cent of the fruit lands, Chinese 15 per cent, Portuguese and Italians 15 per cent, and "Americans," doing their own farming, 10 per cent. In the Vaca Valley about 75 per cent of the fruit farms were leased to Japanese in 1908 and about 60 to 65 per cent of the fruit marketed was controlled by them. On the lower Sacramento River the Japanese in 1909 leased 17,597 acres, and on the lower San Joaquin 8,592 acres, which is 25.1 per cent of the 104,138 acres on these rivers devoted to raising fruit and vegetables, covered by the investigation. In the Pajaro Valley the Japanese owned 16 acres, leased 2,073.5 acres, and controlled 359.5 acres by contract in 1909. In the celery industry of Orange County about 1,000 acres of land, or more than one-third of the total acreage devoted to celery, was leased to Japanese in 1909. About 2,500 acres in the Imperial Valley were leased by Japanese the same year. Approximately one-half of the 3,000 acres devoted to cantaloupe growing in this valley was under Japanese control.

The Japanese control nearly all of the land in the State devoted to the production of strawberries.

The almost universal reason given by white owners for leasing to Japanese is that it proves as profitable as running the place themselves and they thus avoid the trouble incidental to securing laborers. The Japanese lease because it gives them the chance to make large earnings and they wish to rise above a wage basis. The rise of Japanese to the position of independent farmers has had some influence upon the wages paid to Japanese laborers, as will be pointed out in the next section.