CHAPTER III.

THE PACKING INDUSTRY.

THE PACKING INDUSTRY IN GENERAL.

Grape and fruit growing (described in the last chapter) and packing are so closely allied and interdependent that they may be regarded as two branches of one large industry. The relation of the packing to the grape and fruit growing industry is that of furnishing the means for marketing the products. This relation needs no elaboration at this point but will be emphasized and made clear as we proceed.

The packing industry in general may be divided into three branches, more or less differentiated. These are (a) the packing of green fruit, (b) the packing of raisins, and (c) the packing of other dried fruit.

Most of the packing of green fruit is done in sheds located on a railway switch in close proximity to large vineyards and orchards. The fruits which are packed green are chiefly the various kinds of grapes, peaches, and plums. Since the almost complete destruction of the pear trees by the blight, pears are not available for the market. Both the grapes and other fruits are placed carefully in 50-pound boxes and hauled to the packing sheds where women and girls are employed in packing them. The work is very clean and attractive. It is done in the open air and is free from unsanitary or unsafe conditions. This industry has grown very rapidly and of late years a few large packing houses have been established in the city of Fresno, to handle green fruit to the exclusion of all other products.

The packing of raisins, figs, peaches, and other dried fruits is carried on inpacking houses" located in cities and towns, and is usually carried on in different parts of the same establishment either at the same time or at different times as the products are cured" and to be marketed.

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The packing of raisins is divided in turn into the "layer" and seeded raisin" packing. In layer packing the raisins are packed in clusters in 10 to 20 pound boxes and shipped in that form. Layers are graded (according to the size of the raisin berries on the clusters) by the workmen as they pack them. However, very few of the raisins are thus packed, for since the invention of the raisin stemming and, more recently, of the raisin-seeding machine, by far the larger part of the product is marketed either in the "stemmed" or in the seeded " form. The bulk of the raisins are stemmed by the stemming machines, and some are marketed in that form in 50-pound boxes, but the greater part of these stemmed raisins, however, are run through the "seeder" and then packed in the manner which will be described presently.

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All of the work connected with the packing of raisins so far described is clean, and no special opprobrium is attached to it on

account of the nature of the work itself. The conditions under which it is carried on are satisfactory for the most part. The packing of seeded raisins, however, needs special consideration because of the bearing it has on the occupational distribution of the races which will be discussed later in this chapter.

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The process of seeding is carried on in a separate room, usually on an upper floor, in which 2 or 3 men are employed in feeding the "seeder machine. The raisins from the "seeder run down through chutes and come out upon tables, around each of which 28 women work. Each group is divided into 8 separate crews" of 3 women each and 4 carton makers, 1 for every 2 "crews." Of the 3 members of a "crew," 1 puts paraffin paper around a funnel-shaped filler and adjusts it in the carton, the second fills the carton with raisins and weighs it, and the third fastens the top of the carton and places it in a box. In order to break the monotony of the work and to equalize its strain the members of a "crew" change places from time to time.

The packing of seeded raisins is not clean, nor are the conditions under which the work is done as agreeable as those in the packing of other fruits. In the first place great speed is required to keep up with the machinery, and in the second place the men in the "seeder rooms" work in a very high temperature, due to the escape of steam from the seeder machines, and the work of the women around the tables is disagreeable because the soft steamed raisins drop from the chutes and tables and make the floors slippery and dirty.

At the same time that some packers are packing either "layers or "seeded" raisins others are engaged in packing dried fruit, such as peaches, apricots, prunes, and figs. However, these fruits, except figs, do not require much hand packing. The packing consists largely in what is known as " facing" the boxes filled with the dried fruit. This consists merely of arranging one or two layers of the fruit on the surface of the boxes, containing from 10 to 20 pounds of fruit, in uniform and artistic order so as to give them an attractive appearance and thus stimulate the demand for them in the market.

Figs require more care and work than any other kind of dried fruit, for each fig must be cut and packed separately in the form. This fruit is packed in 1-pound forms, pressed, and then placed in cartons. Fig packing is less agreeable than the packing of the other kinds of fruit. The figs are usually passed through a solution of salt water before they are packed, and in handling them the salt works in between the fingers of the packers, and as a result of the constant rubbing of the fingers against each other produces in a few days a painful ulceration of the skin. For this reason it is rather disagreeable. At the same time it is not very clean work.

The packing season extends from August to December, a period of nearly five months. The green-fruit packing begins in August with peaches and plums and ends late in the autumn with the last of the table grapes. The dried-fruit and raisin packinghouses open later and close practically with the packing of the last shipments for the Christmas trade. Though the busiest seasons in the different branches of the trade do not coincide, there is very little shifting of labor from the one to the other.

Paper packages.

Counting all kinds of packing establishments, there are more than 100 in Fresno County, giving employment to more than 4,000 laborers, the majority of whom are women. During the green-fruit packing season in the earlier part of August there are probably less than 1,000 men and women employed. The maximum number is reached during the main part of the raisin and dried-fruit packing season which lasts for two months beginning with September. During this time the number of laborers of both sexes employed is from 4,000 to 5,000. At the end of the season when some shipping grapes, raisins, and figs are packed, the number of packers and laborers is not so great-perhaps, slightly in excess of 1,000. It must be observed that in comparison with the grape-growing industry, packing does not offer employment to as great a number, but on the average it is fair to say that nearly 2,000 are employed in the various packing houses for nearly five months during the year. The seasonal character of the work in this industry, as in the one already described, gives rise to the same labor problem. How this is solved we shall see later.

So far the attempt has been to give a general idea of the nature of the industry, its extent and importance with reference to the laborers, and the conditions under which they work. In the following sections the races employed as laborers, their distribution by race, sex, and occupation, their earnings, the hours of labor, and related matters will be presented.