on very extensively and thousands of acres of land are devoted to it. Along with wheat, barley and other grains are quite extensively grown. Most of the wheat is converted into flour at Fresno. Barley and other grains are grown and harvested for hay. In this connection the growing of alfalfa requires especial mention," for it has received a powerful impetus of late years and has become one of the most profitable of agricultural pursuits.

The abundant hay and grain crop has given rise to extensive dairying interests, with the result that many creameries and "skimming stations" have been established. Besides the dairy industry, which is making remarkable headway on account of the large supply of feed available, cattle, hogs, sheep, horses, and mules are raised. Many cattle are brought from Arizona and Nevada to be fattened and then shipped to other cities in California for slaughter. Thousands of sheep graze along the bottom lands of the Kings and San Joaquin Rivers, which are very fertile and rich in herbage. Hogs and calves are fed on the skimmed milk which is returned from the creameries to the dairies.

One industry, which is yet in its infancy, but is fast advancing, is that of growing citrous fruit. The growing of nursery stock is another industry which is very remunerative and attracts investment. both on the part of white men and Japanese. The growing and shipping of watermelons has been carried on very successfully, but at present the industry is losing ground. Where formerly many acres of land within 4 or 5 miles of the city of Fresno were turned into watermelon patches, these lands are now used either as vineyards or as residence property to meet the needs of the constantly increasing migration from the Eastern States.

This will serve as a background for the discussion of the phases of immigrant life and work in Fresno County investigated by the agents of the Commission. Data relating to immigrant labor in the vineyards and orchards, packinghouses and wineries, will be presented in Chapters II, III, and IV. Immigrants as tenant and landowning farmers will be discussed in Chapter V, while their activities in different branches of trade in the city of Fresno will be considered in Chapter VI. Finally, Chapter VII will be devoted to more general considerations connected with the relations between the races and their institutional life.

A few years ago a process was devised by which alfalfa is ground and used as poultry food. The food is Calfalfa meal. The name is derived from “California" and "alfalfa."

The employment of immigrants in the canneries of Fresno was also investigated. Inasmuch as most of what is said concerning their employment in packinghouses applies equally well there, the data collected have been combined with those obtained for canneries in other localities and presented in a report on "Immigrant Labor in Fruit and Vegetable Canneries in California." To what has been said, it should be added that Asiatics have been more extensively employed in the canneries than in the packinghouses of Fresno County.

CHAPTER II.

IMMIGRANT LABOR IN THE ORCHARDS AND VINEYARDS OF FRESNO COUNTY.

INTRODUCTION.

Because of the disagreeable character of some of the processes involved and its seasonal demands, the production of fruit and grapes in Fresno County has involved a difficult labor problem. This problem has been solved in the past by employing immigrant laborers in large numbers-to such an extent, indeed, that these two industries. are now dependent upon a labor supply of that kind. To understand this dependence upon immigrant labor it is necessary to describe, first of all, the nature of the work and the conditions under which it is done. Following this, the place occupied by each race of laborers, the competition between them, their earnings, and related matters will be considered.

THE WORK TO BE DONE.

The work involved in grape and fruit growing falls naturally into three parts, viz: (a) Cultivation of the vineyards and orchards; (b) harvesting and curing the crops; (c) pruning the trees and vines, "cleaning up," resetting, and other work preliminary to the growing of the next year's crop.

The work of cultivation begins early in the month of March and extends on each ranch to such time as the harvest approaches. It covers, therefore, a period of several months and consists of crossplowing and cultivation as often as conditions require. The first or second plowing with teams is followed by the hoeing necessary to loosen the earth around the vines and to rid the vineyard or orchard of noxious weeds and grass. This work is also repeated several times during the season, as conditions render it necessary. The vineyards and orchards must also be irrigated. If this is done only once during the crop year, it follows the first plowing, and for an "irrigation district" covers a period of two or three weeks. If the land is irrigated more than once, however, such irrigation takes place at various times during the period covered by cultivation. The number of laborers required for the work of cultivation is not large. One man can do the work with teams on 20 acres. While more men are required to do the handwork involved in hoeing, weeding, and irrigating, the number is small as compared to that required during the harvest season.

The harvest season begins in June with the picking of certain kinds of fruit, and continues until the last of October or the first of November, when it ends with the picking of the last of the "wine grapes." The number of men required during this season varies greatly, and when largest, is several times larger than the fairly

constant number required for the work of cultivation. The varying number of men required, the large number required for a few weeks constituting the busiest season, the disagreeable character of some of the work, and the conditions under which the work is done, make the labor problem during the harvest season a difficult one to solve.

a

As stated above, the number of hand laborers required during the period of cultivation remains fairly constant. With the picking of apricots and early peaches, however, this number begins to expand and as the fruit ripens more rapidly becomes larger and larger. The picking of "table grapes" begins early in August and overlaps the picking of fruit to a certain extent. This is followed by the picking of "raisin grapes," the growing and curing of which constitutes the most important industry of the county. Most of this work is done during three weeks of the month of September, and at that time more than 7,000 pickers are required to meet the needs of the community, unless the crop is "short," The "raisin grapes" picked, they must be "cured," which involves turning them on the trays upon which they are placed in order that both sides may be equally exposed to the sun. Fewer men are required to do this work and to pick the "wine" and "table" grapes, the harvesting of which continues for a month longer. If 7,000 men are necessary to do the picking during the busiest season, 4,000, perhaps, would suffice to do the curing and the picking of "wine" and "table grapes" just mentioned. As the season is prolonged, fewer and fewer hand laborers are required in the vineyards to pick the second crop of "raisin grapes" (ordinarily sold to the wineries) and such "table" grapes as are still maturing and being placed upon the market. The season finally closes with the end of October or the beginning of November, when the dullest time of the year ensues.

The pruning season, with its "cleaning up," burning of brush, and resetting of trees and vines, begins ordinarily in the month of November and extends over into the month of March. The pruning of orchards is done in November and December, of vineyards in January, February, and March. The former requires very few men, but the later necessitates an expansion of the labor force, some 3,000 or 4,000 men being required. However, many, though not a majority, of these are men reguarly employed and at other times are engaged in the cultivation of vineyards and orchards and in other ranch work.

Thus the number of men required to do the handwork in vineyards and orchards varies greatly in different seasons of the year, being largest during the month of September when the raisin grapes are harvested and smallest during a period of several weeks preceding the beginning of the new year. The seasonal character of the work and the varying number of the men required give rise, as we shall see, to some difficulties connected with the labor problem of this community.

Hoeing, weeding, and the processes incidental to cultivation, other than those done with teams, are unattractive because handwork. Perhaps the picking and drying of fruit when the harvest season comes on is no more unattractive. The picking of grapes and especially of raisin grapes, however, is different.

a The number of pickers is sometimes estimated to be as large as 10,000.

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The grape vines are usually pruned back to within a few inches of the stump, and at the harvest time the bearing branches lie upon or close to the ground. The grapes as picked are placed upon trays, one layer deep, in order that they may be "cured" by the sunshine. These facts make it necessary that the picker should assume a stooping or squatting posture while engaged in clipping the bunches of grapes and placing them upon the trays. The work is commonly said to be "back breaking," and this is one reason which most Americans" give for their absolute refusal to engage in grape picking when other employment can be found. Moreover, the vineyards are dry and dusty, so that the employment becomes objectionable upon the ground that it is "dirty." Again, it must be pointed out that the harvesting of grapes falls during the hotter months of the year. At times the official records show a temperature of 105° or 110° in the shade. Needless to say, working in the sunshine close to the ground in the vineyards, the laborer finds it much hotter. Indeed, the heat would be intolerable were it not for the fact that the humidity at that time of the year is very low.

These are the more important conditions imposed by the nature of these industries, which are of importance in connection with the problem of labor. Other conditions adding to the difficulty of the problem have grown out of the fact that the work has usually been done by certain classes of laborers and conditions closely connected with it. These will receive due consideration later in this report.

THE LABOR SUPPLY-RACES EMPLOYED.

Of the many laborers required to do the work involved in these horticultural and viticultural industries which are usually combined on the ranch, some are "regular while others are temporary hands," employed irregularly at such times as their services are needed.

The work with teams-cultivating, and hauling of boxes, trays, harvested crop, and prunings from vines and trees-is done on the smallest ranches by the rancher himself, but on the larger ranches by "hands" regularly employed throughout the year. Along with this they do most of the regular ranch work not incidental to fruit and grape growing. Regular hands and the owners of small ranches also do a part of the handwork involved in cultivation, practically all of that in preparing the vineyards for picking, a large share of the curing of raisins, and a part of the pruning. Other men are employed temporarily for specific processes. They do a part of the handwork involved in the cultivation of vineyards and orchards, practically all of the picking and cutting and drying of fruit, the picking of grapes, the packing of "table" grapes for shipment, a part of the curing of raisins and placing them in "sweat boxes" preparatory to the packing processes, and a large part of the pruning of vines and trees. In other words, such parts of the work as are not too distasteful and can be dovetailed together so as to become fairly regular in their demands, are performed by the ranch owner or

• On ranches of 40 acres or less devoted largely to the growing of grapes few men are employed regularly. On the larger ranches, say of 640 acres, however, as many as 10 men are employed throughout the year.