• Not including 1 Italian under 18 years of age working for $15 per month with board.

Boards with owner of farm, who is an American.

1

4

4

1

Number reporting

complete

These tables bring out the facts (1) that the miscellaneous whites were with one exception employed by white farmers and were boarded by the employer; (2) that the Italians were all employed by Italians and that whether employed as regular or as temporary hands received board and lodging in addition to wages; (3) that the Chinese were mostly employed by Chinese and receive board in addition to wages; (4) that the Chinese farmers also employed Japanese and Koreans, who are invariably boarded and lodged with the Chinese employees; (5) that the Japanese were employed by all races and are invariably provided with board in addition to wages by the Chinese employer, sometimes, but not always so, by the Japanese employer," and never by the other races of employers; (6) that the Japanese farmers are employing a few East Indians in addition to the much larger number of their countrymen; and (7) that the "white farmers" had all races here dealt with save the Italians among their employees.

All of this is a repetition of what has already been said and requires no further discussion. An attempt was made to separate those regularly from those temporarily employed. This separation is difficult to make and can not be effected with any degree of accuracy, for few work with teams, while all the others work in groups at the same rate of wages. Nearly all of those who are employed throughout the year are paid by the day and the rate varies from season to season and is generally the same as that paid to those of the same race temporarily employed. Because of this fact the distinction has little or no value in so far as the wages paid are concerned. It is worth something, however, to indicate the races added to those regularly employed to assist during the busier seasons. In making the separation those who were so engaged that their employment could not extend beyond a few weeks were grouped among the temporarily employed (see Tables 13 and 14). Tables 11 and 12 do not, therefore, represent those engaged by the year or month, but rather indicate the number of those present at the time of the investigation for whose work there would be a demand on the ranches where they were for three months or more. These tables bring out the facts that of 1,340 Japanese, 754; of 139 East Indians, 73; of 147 Chinese, 35; of 72 Italians, 21; of 26 "miscellaneous whites," 4 were added to the numbers for whose labor there was a demand for a longer period of time. Furthermore, of a total of 1,725, 887 are grouped as being temporarily employed.

Tables 11 to 14 show also the rate of wages paid to ranch laborers of the several races, by race of employer. Tables 15 and 16 combine Tables 11 to 14, so as to present the data in more concise form. In these tables all time earnings have been reduced to earnings per workday. Those paid otherwise than by the day are set down as earning $1.28, $1.54, $1.73, or $1.92. These are the equivalents for $400 per year, $40, $45, and $50 per month, respectively.

The tables show that the majority of the Japanese employed by their countrymen are not provided with board in addition to their wages. In most of these cases where board is not so furnished, however, the employer boards his men at so much per day or collects from them the actual cost. Where so much per day is charged, it is largely a matter of convenience, the price being based upon the actual cost in almost all cases. The prices charged vary from 20 to 30 cents per day.

Piece rate and contract earnings have not been entered in these tables. Most of the fruit packing is at so much per box, a large share of the beans and onions are planted, cultivated, and harvested at so much per sack, and some of the labor in the asparagus industry is remunerated on a similar basis. As would be expected, the men working by contract or on a piece basis work longer hours and put forth greater effort, and are thereby enabled to make unusually large earnings. The estimated average earnings are in these cases from 10 to 60 per cent larger than those made by the same races of men working by the day in the same communities at the same or related tasks.

In order to interpret properly the earnings presented in this series of tables, it must be held in mind also that the data were collected in June and July. The winter wages for "day work" are usually some 25 cents per day less. During the months of March to June much labor is required in the asparagus fields, with the result that in some communities they advance to the summer scale (if one can be said to exist) in early spring. In others they advance later. Again, in the autumn months-beginning with August and extending to October-much work is to be done in harvesting beans and digging potatoes. At the same time the demand for labor in other localities, and especially in the vineyards, is strong, so that laborers are attracted elsewhere. The result in normal years is to bring into existence a higher scale of wages by 10 or 15 cents per day than that which obtained at the time the investigation was made.