CHAPTER XVI.

JAPANESE IN AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS AND ITALIAN GARDENERS ABOUT PORTLAND, OREGON.

[For General Tables see pp. 934 to 949.]

THE JAPANESE AS AGRICULTURAL LABORERS.

In the vicinity of Portland there are some 400, about Salem from 150 to 200, in the Hood River district and The Dalles between 300 and 400, and about La Grande some 125 Japanese engaged in agricultural labor. These are the maximum figures during the busiest summer months. In winter the numbers are much smaller. Moreover, these figures include those who are farming on their own account in all but the last-mentioned district. There are very few Japanese farm laborers in other parts of Oregon.

Almost without exception, the Japanese engaged in agricultural pursuits have been employed in those branches which require much hand labor. About Portland they work in the vegetable gardens and berry patches. About Salem they are engaged in gardening and the cultivation and picking of hops. In the Hood River district and at The Dalles they are employed in the orchards and berry patches. They hoe, weed, prune, and pick fruit and berries. About La Grande they have been engaged in thinning, hoeing, and harvesting the sugar beets. Hand work of this character, cutting wood, and clearing land are the occupations in which the Japanese have engaged.

A comparatively small number of Japanese were employed in agricultural communities previous to 1900. Most of those who came to Portland found employment on the railroads, with which the "bosses" had contracts to supply as large numbers as they could command. Moreover, farm wages were relatively low. During the period after 1890 the few Japanese farm laborers were paid from 40 to 50 cents per day. For clearing land in winter they were paid from 30 to 40 cents per day, without board. Even as late as 1898, when they commanded $1 to $1.10 as section hands, 75 cents per day was considered good wages for Japanese farm laborers. Indeed, few received as much as $1 per day in summer before 1902. From that time, however, their wages have varied with and corresponded closely to those paid to section hands of that race. The changes which have taken place are indicated by the following table:

TABLE 26.-Monthly and daily earnings of Japanese laborers from 1905 to 1909.

The wages of Japanese farm laborers have never been as high as those paid to white men. When the former received from 75 cents to $1 per day, the latter earned about 50 cents per day more. The difference between the earnings of the laborers of the two races is not so great at present, but the white hands receive on the average 25 cents more per day than the Japanese. The low wages of the Japanese have not affected the wages of white laborers, however. The Asiatics have really been employed to supplement the supply of white laborers, which has been inadequate because of the dislike for hand labor and because of the movement toward the cities to secure more agreeable and more remunerative employment. In fact, the Japanese have in a way replaced the Chinese, who have diminished in number. Moreover, they have been paid the wage for which the Chinamen, who have been preferred by the white farmer, worked.

At the present time a large percentage of the Japanese working as farm laborers are employed by farmers of their own race. In recent years a comparatively large number of the Japanese who had worked for wages on the railroads and farms have leased land and are now farming on their own accounts.

THE HISTORY AND EXTENT OF FARMING BY JAPANESE.

According to the United States census 2 farms were being conducted in Oregon by Japanese in 1900. These farmers no doubt soon failed and returned to the ranks of wage laborers, for the Japanese assert that the first Japanese to engage in farming on his own account settled at Hillsdale, some 7 or 8 miles southwest of Portland, in 1902. He also failed, but two years later there were a dozen or more small farms conducted by Japanese in the vicinity of Portland. Since then a dozen or more have been added to the list each year, and recently they have leased or purchased some land in other localities. The first farmers were engaged almost exclusively in berry growing, but as their number has increased a greater variety of crops has been grown. The land now (1909) occupied by Japanese in districts in which they have tended to colonize is shown in the following table. Perhaps as many as 15 more tracts of land in different parts of the State are occupied by Japanese tenant farmers.

TABLE 27.-Tenure of land by Japanese in 1909.

Vicinity of Portland e.

Hood River..

The Dalles.

Salem...

Quincy..

Total.

Locality.

a Census, 1900, Agriculture, Pt. I, p. XCIV.

Y. Kudo and T. Abe, The Japanese in Oregon.

c Includes Montavilla, Russelville, Cleon, Riverside, Gresham, Hillsdale, and Mount Tabor. d Not including several tracts of land rented, number and acreage not accurately known.

The Japanese lease 1,087 and own 80 acres of land about Montavilla, Russelville, Cleon, Riverside, Gresham, Hillsdale, and Mount Tabor. All of these except Hillsdale are situated east of Portland and are from 5 to 20 miles from that city. Hillsdale, on the other hand, is 7 or 8 miles southwest of Portland. About Hillsdale there are 13 Japanese farmers who control 546 acres. The principal products are berries and vegetables, though hay and oats are grown to a certain extent. The leases are generally for five years, and the rent, where cash is paid, averages about $8 per acre.

In the other localities near Portland berries and vegetables are the chief crops. Practically all of the Japanese farmers were originally berry growers, but year after year they have given more attention to the production of vegetables. Most of them pay cash rents, which vary from $6 to $40 per acre, land of exceptionally good soil and devoted to strawberries commanding the maximum price. A very few are farming "on shares." When berry plants are set anew by the tenant the owner generally receives one-third of the crop or the money equivalent. If the plants have already been set, however, the crop is shared equally between owner and tenant.

The production of berries, cherries, and apples has become the chief industry of the Hood River Valley, some 60 miles east of Portland. Though the Japanese have been employed here for several years, it was only two years ago (1907) that they began to farm on their own account. There are now 8 Japanese farmers, 4 of whom own the farms they occupy. They engage in the growing of berries and fruit. The rent paid for leased land varies from $5 to $20 per acre, while the prices paid for land have varied from $30 to $200 per acre for uncleared and from $100 to $500 for improved farms. The Dalles is on the Columbia River some 90 miles from Portland. One Japanese corporation, with a capital stock of $35,000, owns a tract of land containing some 1,180 acres. Some 600 acres of this area is devoted to wheat, and a part of the remainder to the production of apples. Nine other Japanese own 500 acres all told in this locality.

At Salem one farm is owned by a Japanese and is devoted chiefly to the growing of hops. Finally, a Portland contractor owns a farm of 80 acres near Quincy and conducts a dairy with 80 cows.

From this review of Japanese farming in the several localities, it is evident that they engage chiefly in the production of berries and vegetables for the Portland market. In this they compete with berry growers and truck gardeners of other races. The Chinese have long been engaged in gardening near Portland, but in recent years their gardens have not been so extensive as those of the Italians."

The first Italian truck farmers are said to have settled near Portland in 1875. They are now the most prominent of all races engaged in small farming in this locality. They grow vegetables on the "Columbia sloughs," at Vancouver, Wash., and at Beaverton, Oreg. A few years ago, they formed a "Farmers and Gardeners' Association" to further their mutual interests, and established a vegetable market in Portland, occupying an entire block.

@ In 1900, 92 Chinese farms were returned for Oregon (Census 1900, Agriculture, Pt. I, p. XCIV). Most of these are in the vicinity of Portland.

Less important than the Chinese and Italians have been a rather large number of German farmers in the vicinity of Milwaukee, Oswego, and Gresham, who have grown vegetables as a "side line" on land devoted to general farming. Finally, in one or two localities there have been several Scandinavian and native white berry growers. However, their lands have for the greater part been leased to the Japanese (who had been doing most of the work), because leasing, under the circumstances which have obtained, has been both more convenient and more profitable.

Agents of the Commission collected data from the Japanese conducting 19 and from the Italians conducting 8 farms. Fourteen of the Japanese and all of the Italian farms visited are in the vicinity of Portland. The details obtained will throw further light upon the situation.

THE SETTLEMENT, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT POSITION OF THE JAPANESE FARMERS.

Of the 19 Japanese farms for which data were collected, 15 were leased, 2 were owned, and 2 were in part leased and in part owned. The number of acres leased was 601, the number owned 155.33. Hence the total acreage of the 19 farms was 756.33. The smallest holding was one-third of an acre devoted to flowers and vegetables, the largest 200 acres, devoted to grain and vegetables. The median holding was 25, the average 39.81 acres. (General Tables 357.)

All of the tenants paid cash rent for their holdings. The minimum rent paid was $125 per year for a 40-acre farm in bad condition, the maximum $90 per year for 3 acres of land devoted to the growing of vegetables. The average rent per acre for the 17 farms was $10.96. All but 1 of the Japanese farmers owned 1 or more horses (General Table 364). The landowners seldom provide their tenants with teams. They do, however, provide the necessary implements in a large number of instances-5 of the 15 where all of the land tilled was leased. Hence the rent paid is in part for the use of these implements.

Though some of the leases are for one year, others for three, and still others for four, the vast majority are for a period of five years. That the majority are for comparatively long periods is explained by the fact that much of the land leased has not previously been devoted to intensive farming, and that when used for the production of berries and vegetables, it requires a relatively long time to develop it and to profit by the time and care which are necessarily involved in farming of this kind.

The kind of farming done by the Japanese is indicated by General Table 363. Two farms were devoted to vegetable gardening only, 13 to vegetable gardening and fruit growing (chiefly of strawberries), 1 to flowers and vegetables, and the other 3 to general crops, vegetables, and fruit. In 1908 vegetables were produced for sale on 17, fruit (chiefly berries) on 13, and general crops on 2. The value of the green vegetables produced was $7,996, of potatoes $4,550, of berries $10,315, of other fruit, chiefly cherries, $1,265, of general crops $3,360.

In 1908 the number of acres cultivated was 525.83, the value of all crops produced $26,836. The average amount produced per farm was approximately $1,412.42, the average amount per acre cultivated $51.04. Excluding one general farm and the business of a florist and vegetable grower, the number of acres devoted to the production of vegetables (including potatoes) and fruit was 332.5, the value of the crops produced $20,726, the value of the crops per farm $1,219, the value of the crops per acre $62.33.

Three of the 4 farms owned in their entirety or in part are farmed by individual proprietors. Of the remaining 15 farms-all tenant9 are conducted by single farmers, 4 by 2 partners each, 1 by 3, and 1 by 4. All told, therefore, there were 29 Japanese farmers occupying the 19 farms investigated.

Twenty-five of these 29 farmers came directly to the continental United States upon leaving Japan; the other 4 by way of Hawaii, where they found employment for a time upon the sugar plantations. At the time of the investigation, 1 had been in this country for two years, 2 for three years, 5 for four years, 16 for from five to nine years, and 5 for from ten to fourteen years (General Table 370). Five came to the United States when under 18 years of age, 2 between 18 and 20, 11 between 20 and 25, 6 between 25 and 30, 4 between 30 and 35, and 1 between 35 and 40. Eighteen, therefore, were under 25; 11, 25 or over, at the time of immigrating to the continental United States. (General Table 366.)

Of the 19 individual farmers and head partners, 6 before coming to the United States had been farmers, 7 on their fathers' farms, and 1 in business, while 2 had been farm laborers in Hawaii. The remaining 3 had not been gainfully employed before emigrating from Japan. (General Tables 360 and 361.) They all immigrated to the United States because this country presented better opportunities for making money. They brought only nominal amounts of money with them (General Table 358) and all became wage earners upon arrival in this country. Two found first employment as farm hands, 11 as railroad laborers, 3 as common laborers, and 3 as domestics. (General Table 361.)

After saving a few hundred dollars from such work as this (and) 2 from business conducted for profit), 10 of 19 came to the localities in which they are now settled and purchased or leased land and began farming at once. Most of the others took employment as farm hands for a few years before engaging in farming on their own account. Fully one-half of these individual farmers and senior partners and a still larger percentage of the junior partners had not engaged in agricultural pursuits in the United States before leasing or purchasing land and undertaking farming on their own account. This fact, no doubt, explains the poor technical and financial results realized by a large number of them.

When they began to lease, all of these men save 1 paid cash rent. In the other case labor was performed in lieu of rent. In 6

• Of the 10 junior partners, 6 had been on their fathers' farms, 2 had been students, and the other 2 had been farm laborers in Hawaii.

Of the other 10, 7 took employment as railroad laborers, 1 as a farm hand, 1 as a domestic ("schoolboy "), while the other became a junior partner in farming upon arrival in the United States.