The progress of these farmers is shown in various ways. While the acreage controlled by them individually since settling in the community has not materially increased, many improvements have been made on their holdings. Fences and houses have been built, pumping plants installed, and the soil improved by fertilization and cultivation. Of 560 acres obtained by first lease or purchase, only 295 were ready for use. At present practically all of the land held is devoted to intensive farming. Partly because of these improvements and partly because of the greater site values attaching to land in these localities, the value of the garden lands has greatly appreciated, with the result that the wealth of those who purchased several years ago has rapidly increased. Eight purchased farms at an aggregate cost of $49,300. The present value of these lands with their improvements and additional purchases of 13.5 acres is estimated at $217.500. (General Table 241.)

None of these gardeners had as much as $100 upon his arrival in this country. At the time of the investigation 2 reported property the net value of which was in excess of $25,000, 5 property worth from $10,000 to $25,000, 1 property worth $9.420, while another had $3,075. The remaining 5 had less than $1,500 each, the estimated values being $1,366, $1,260, $956, $320, and $111. These farmers have little "personal property." In spite of the fact that the majority are tenant farmers, most of the wealth of the entire group is in real estate. Hence the tenant farmers, though they have made many improvements upon the land occupied by them, have little wealth, while the landowners, who have profited by the increased land values, as a rule, have much wealth for truck gardeners as a class. Yet most of these farmers have been successful in accumulating some property since they settled in the locality. Of 13 reporting details, 11 now have property worth $174,148.03, as against $37,190 brought to the locality, while 2, bringing $1,400, have property with an estimated value of $1,276.25. (General Table 241.)

SOCIOLOGICAL DATA.

While some of the houses occupied by these Italian families are small, and some of them not in good repair, they are well kept. In several cases there are two houses on the farm--an old one occupied by the hired help" and a new one occupied by the farmer's family. Some of the new houses are exceptionally good and are well furnished. As a rule, the floors are carpeted, and several of the families have pianos. Nearly all of the houses contain separate living and dining rooms, not used for other purposes.

Though some of these Italians did not immigrate with the intention of remaining permanently in the United States, with one exception they now expect to do so. Yet in spite of their long residence, knowledge of English, and intention to remain permanently in this country, the majority of those investigated had failed to become naturalized. Of 12 who came to this country when 21 years of age or over, and have been here for 5 years or more, 7 are aliens, while 5 have secured second papers. The majority take no active. interest in politics, yet they prefer to live under our form of government. Their chief interest has been and is in making money.

Personal information was obtained from 30 immigrant male and 20 immigrant female North Italians in the 24 households. Of the 30

men, 26, of the 20 women, 11, were literate. With one exception the illiterates were found among those who had been in this country ten years or over. Of the 50 who were foreign-born, 2 have been in this country less than five years, 8 from five to nine years and 40 ten years or more. During this time all have learned to speak the English language. Only 16 of the entire number can read, and only 13 can both read and write the language, however, and most of these came to this country when children. Information was obtained also for 100 native-born of Italian father. Of the 79 who were 6 years of age or over, all could speak English, and of the 69 who were 10 years of age or over, all could read and write the language. Indeed, because of the influence of the children, English is generally spoken in these families, and the children usually have only a limited speaking knowledge of the Italian language. The children attend the public schools and receive a common-school education. Of 22 nativeborn and 2 foreign-born children between 6 and 13 years of age, all but 2 were attending school. Of 7, 14 and 15 years of age, 4 were still attending school, while 2 were at work, and 1 was at home. (General Tables 248 to 254.)

Closely connected with the use of English is the practice of the households in subscribing for newspapers and periodicals. Of the 24, 5 were without any newspapers, 3 subscribed for one paper each, and 2 for two printed in English, while 4 each subscribed for one newspaper printed in Italian. The remaining 10 subscribed for two or more newspapers each, some printed in the one language, some in the other. These details are indicative of a rather high standard of culture and of a fairly large degree of Americanization.

Four of the farmers investigated were married before coming to the United States. Twelve have since married immigrant women of their own race, while 7 have married Italian-Americans, and 1 a German-American woman. Most of the Italian immigrants married within a few years of their arrival in this country, and living with people of their own race, intermarriage with other races is not expected to occur frequently. Marriage within the race has been but slightly less characteristic of the native-born, however. Besides the 7 native females above noted who married North Italian immigrants, data were obtained with reference to the husbands or wives of 16 other native-born women and men who had married. With three exceptions they had married Italians or Italian-Americans. The three exceptions were cases in which two women married native Americans and another a German husband. Living in the suburbs with the Italian element predominating among the agricultural classes and near the Italian colonies of San Francisco, these Italians and their offspring have retained much of their natural clannishness.

The Italians are members of the Roman Catholic church. Some of them attend churches where the services are in English, others those where at least part of the service is in Italian. Their social life centers largely in the church and in societies connected with it.

Several of the farmers investigated were members of Italian beneficiary organizations and societies meeting in San Francisco. Among these were the Garibaldina, Societa Ligure, and the Mutua Beneficenza. A few also have membership in the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and the Druids.

48296°-VOL 24-11-31

CHAPTER X.

SCANDINAVIAN FARMERS OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALI

FORNIA.

[For General Tables see pp. 864 to 873.]

INTRODUCTION.

According to the census of 1900, the population of Santa Clara County was 60,216. Of that number, 14,561, or 24.2 per cent, were foreign-born, many races being represented among them. Two of the numerically more important of the foreign-born groups were the Italian and the Scandinavian, but their members constituted only 2.3 and 1.6 per cent, respectively, of the total population. Unlike most of the other foreign races which find a place in the population of the county, both the Italians and the Scandinavians have exhibited a strong desire to gain possession of farm land and to engage in agriculture. Most of the Italians have come to the community as laborers, and after saving sufficient money many of them have purchased farms and engaged in truck gardening or fruit growing, these two branches of agriculture, together with seed farming, being the chief agricultural interests of all but a few sections of the large county. Most of the Scandinavians have moved west after spending some years in the North Central States. It would appear that fully 80 per cent of the agricultural families had moved west in this way, while less than 20 per cent had come directly from their native lands to California, where they joined friends who had preceded them. The majority of them, when they came, had sufficient capital to engage in farming at once, and, as a rule, they purchased "raw land" and developed orchards. At the present time they, like the natives, are engaged principally in fruit growing, but a comparatively small number are engaged in general farming. Like the Americans, also, they do not engage to any considerable extent in vegetable gardening. The Scandinavian agricultural families have been fairly well assimilated before settling in the locality, and have purchased or leased farms scattered throughout the county and have become identified with American interests and life in almost every way.

The settlement of Scandinavians in the locality dates back at least thirty-five years, and has been coincident with the breaking up of most of the large land holdings which formerly existed and the development of horticulture until at present Santa Clara County ranks first among California counties in the deciduous fruit industry. The greatest influx of Danes and Swedes, however, occurred between 1880 and 1900. Since 1900 few have come to the locality. Their westward movement has been directed to other places where intensive farming has not been as extensively developed and where land is cheaper, and specially to the Northwest, i. e., Oregon and Washington-States which are more easily reached from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, and where the winter climate is found to be

more like that to which they have been accustomed than the climate of California.

An agent of the Commission in the autumn of 1908 secured data from 1 Danish-American and 20 Scandinavian farmers and their families, these being selected as typical of the larger number in the county. The data secured are presented in the following sections of this report.

PRESENT POSITION OF THE SCANDINAVIAN FARMERS.

The 21 farmers included in the investigation leased or owned 20 farms, embracing 611.97 acres. Fifteen of the farms were owned by the farmers who occupied them, 2 were leased, while 3 were in part owned and in part leased. The number of acres owned was 407.47, the number leased for cash 68, the number leased for a share of the crop 136.5. The several holdings varied from a 1-acre plot to 92 acres. The average number of acres per farm was 30.6, while the median farm had 20 acres. (General Table 255.) The wide variation in size, as well as the size of the average and the median farm, correspond closely to the parallel facts as to holdings of other races, where these holdings are devoted to fruit growing.

The farms investigated were all devoted primarily to fruit growing. During the preceding year the receipts from sales of fruit from 18 farms (1 place was rented to another farmer, while the orchard on another was not yet bearing) amounted to $32,501, while the aggregate receipts from sales of other products from 19 farms studied amounted to only $2,645. The extent to which these farmers specialized in growing fruit is not greatly exaggerated by the figures just given, for the majority, because of the inadequate rainfall and the difficulties connected with irrigation, do not raise the greater part of the vegetables consumed by their families. Moreover, in using the land for the crop for which it is best adapted 14 of 18 produced only one or two different kinds of fruit for sale e. g., cherries, prunes, and apricots. Though most of the Scandinavian farmers keep one or two cows and all have sufficinet poultry to supply their needs, they are engaged in highly intensive farming for the market.

Three of the 19 farmers had less than $500 as receipts from produce sold, two $500 and under $1,000, five $1,000 and under $1,500, two $1,500 and under $2,000, four $2,000 and under $3,000, two $3.000 and under $5,000, and one $5,000. (General Tables 255 and 258.) Only one, the farmer owning the 1-acre plot of ground, worked for wages, though some of the children were employed by others. Most of the farmers did all of the work on their own farms save the pruning of the trees and the harvesting of the fruit, when Japanese were usually employed to do the greater part of the work.

As noted above, the value of the fruit sold from 18 ranches during the year preceding the investigation was $32.501. The acreage of bearing orchards of the 18 ranches was 528.97. The receipts from fruit crops sold therefore averaged $61.44 per acre. Because of the large yield per acre the land, with orchards, is valued at from $250 to $800 per acre. The land and improvements, with one exception, had estimated values in excess of $2,500. The real estate of four had an estimated value of $2,500 but less than $5,000, of