SPECIALIZATION BY COMMUNITIES AND RESULTING DIFFICULTY IN SECURING LABORERS.

The matter of securing an adequate number of laborers to perform all of the intensive handwork required in connection with these crops is the more difficult because of the specialization of most communities in one or more of these crops, the seasonal character of the work, and the temporary demands in allied industries at the same seasons, and because the supply of labor permanently located in these districts is hardly adequate to supply the need for regular farm workers and temporary laborers in canneries and packing houses in the towns. Because of their climatic conditions, soil, and topography certain districts in the State are best adapted to certain of these crops, and the majority of the farms of these districts specialize in the one or more intensive crops to which they are best adapted. Any one of these specialized branches of agriculture does not as a rule require many laborers throughout the year, but only certain processes at various stages of growth make an urgent demand for workers, and in a district specializing mainly in one crop this demand for large forces of men on many ranches comes within a short period of time. Not only do the farms require these additional workers for the short harvest seasons, but dependent upon many of these products there are also factories and canning and packing establishments, which require extra laborers to operate them at the same season in order to handle the crop as harvested. The towns in these agricultural districts are usually small, and their surplus labor supply is employed almost entirely in these allied establishments. The specialization of most agricultural communities limits the demand for many laborers to short seasons, and there are usually no other industries to keep many extra men there after the seasonal ranch work and canning and packing-house work are finished.

Some of the most important of these specialized agricultural districts will be dealt with in detail to show these conditions.

That part of the San Joaquin Valley in the vicinity of the city of Fresno, in Fresno County, because of its soil, available water for irrigation, and hot, dry climate, is admirably suited to the growing and drying of fruit. The greater part of this district is devoted to growing raisin grapes, wine grapes, and some table grapes. In addition to the vineyards, which occupy about 100,000 acres, this district also produces figs and deciduous fruit. Much of the deciduous fruit is harvested in June. The gathering of table grapes begins. the latter part of July and of wine grapes the latter part of August, and the work of both continues into November. The harvest of these two varieties of grapes in Fresno County requires two or three thousand men. The 50.000 acres of raisin grapes must be picked within a period of from three to six weeks, beginning about September 1, bringing the number of pickers employed in Fresno County alone during this short period to nearly 10,000. Except for the pruning of vines, which covers a period of a month or six weeks after the grape harvest, few hand laborers are employed in the vineyards during the other months of the year.

While the deciduous fruit is being picked during the months of June, July, and August, the canneries in Fresno employ several

hundred men, women, and children to can the fruit as fast as it is gathered. While the wine grapes are being picked by a large force of laborers, the wineries are in operation. They begin the last of August and run until about December 1, the length of the vintage season varying from six weeks to four months, according to the capacity of the plants, the size of tributary vineyards, varieties of grapes, etc. During the vintage some 250 or 400 temporary laborers are employed in these wineries. The packing of table grapes also gives employment to a large force of workers, the majority being women and girls, at the same time that pickers are needed in the fields. The raisin, fig, and other dried fruit packing houses in this district usually begin operation after the greater part of the fruit has been picked as some time is needed for the drying. Several thousand men, women, and children are required in these packing plants for a period of two or three months, October, November, and December.

Fresno, which is one of the largest cities in the center of an agricultural district, has a comparatively large population of unskilled laborers who are mainly dependent upon the farm products for their livelihood. The permanent residents of the city available for seasonal work are largely foreign-born. Few white persons can be secured to go into the country to work temporarily, except to pack fresh fruit and cut deciduous fruit for drying. During the harvest season nearly all of the available members of the unskilled white class are employed for work in the canneries, and later, in the dried fruit packing establishments. This work is more agreeable to them than picking fruit, and in most cases they work in towns close to their homes, which has its advantages. Whole families are found working in the packing houses and canneries. The picking of fruit falls largely to the Asiatics who live in the community and to the large number who come in from other districts. The wineries draw some of their "inside laborers" from the laboring class of Fresno, but a great many of the employees are migratory laborers. There are also several smaller towns in this district, but they are not able to furnish an adequate supply of laborers for the packing establishments there located.

In northern California there are many districts specializing in deciduous fruit growing. The Newcastle district in Placer County, embracing 14,000 acres of foothill orchard land, produces cherries, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, and strawberries. Nearly all of the developed land in this district is devoted to these crops. The need for laborers comes for the picking and packing of the fruit for shipment. The packing of the fruit, which is shipped "green," is done on each ranch. The variety of fruit grown in this foothill section is such that the harvest season extends intermittently from May to October. In May and June cherries, early peaches, strawberries, and other berries are gathered and shipped, and from June to October the different varieties of peaches, pears, plums, and grapes are picked and packed as they mature. During the latter part of June and July, when the greatest number of men are required, it is estimated that between 2,500 and 3,000 are employed in this fruit district. The work is irregular during the season because of the variable times at which the different varieties mature. The

varying number of laborers employed at different seasons of the year is well illustrated by the following data secured from 46 fruit and strawberry farms in this district:

The great majority of the harvest laborers come from other districts for the busy season only. The towns at the shipping points in this district are not large and are entirely dependent upon the fruit industry. They have no class of unskilled laborers available for the harvest only, as there are no other industries which would furnish work for them during the other months of the year.

The Vaca Valley has about 15,000 acres of deciduous fruit orchards which comprise nearly all of the land in the valley. The labor demand in this district is for the picking and packing of "green fruit, and the cutting and sulphuring of fruit to be dried. The season" embraces the picking of cherries and apricots in May and June, of peaches, plums, and pears in July, and of late peaches in August. As apricots are grown in the largest quantities, the maximum number of laborers will be found during the latter part of May and in June. For the 15,000 acres of orchards in this valley nearly 7,500 persons are employed during the height of the season in the picking, packing, and cutting of fruit on ranches. The number is considerably smaller in July and still smaller in August. Even during these four months there are intervals when a large part of the workers are unemployed while waiting for the different varieties to mature. Of 1,143 employes on 19 ranches from which data were taken in this valley, 134 were employed regularly throughout the year, while 1,009 found employment only temporarily and irregularly for a period of 3 to 12 weeks during the harvest. The ratio of regular to temporary is thus 1 to 7.5. This district has a resident population of 5,000, of whom 1,500 live in Vacaville. The majority of these permanent residents are ranch owners, lessees, regular help, and tradesmen in the village and their families. Vacaville contains very few casual unskilled laborers who can be drawn upon for the seasonal orchard work. The 2,000 additional white seasonal workers engaged in the picking and cutting of fruit come largely from Oakland and San Francisco-four hours distant by train from Vacaville-and about the same number of Asiatics come from other districts for the harvest work.

The islands and reclaimed districts on the Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are devoted to a variety of products. The higher river-bank land on the Sacramento from about Courtland down to Isleton (about 12 miles) is devoted to deciduous-fruit growing. The lower land back from the levees in these reclaimed districts and islands between the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers is devoted

largely to asparagus and bean growing. There are also large tracts in this section devoted to the growing of potatoes. In fact, about onehalf of the potato crop of the State is grown along the San Joaquin River. The fruit is of various kinds-cherries, pears, peaches, plums, etc. and requires a considerable number of men irregularly throughout the summer. The fruit growers, however, usually raise asparagus, beans, and other vegetables on the "back" lands so that the number of "hands" does not change as much during the year as in other fruit districts. The asparagus fields require several thousand hand workers during the cutting season-March to the last of June-but during the rest of the year few are needed. The growing of beans in this district gives employment to hundreds of men for a period of several weeks during the summer when the beans are hoed, and to a smaller number during the harvest. The planting of potatoes in the summer and the harvesting in the fall require several hundred men. All of these agricultural products on the Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers require many laborers for short seasons, but there is a sufficient variety of crops on some of the ranches and as between the different communities in the district to keep the supply of laborers in the district as a whole more nearly equalized and steady throughout the year than is the case in other sections. A large number of laborers, however, are brought from outside places to this district at various times during the year. The variation in the number of workers by months on 84 farms visited in three communities on the Lower Sacramento River was as follows:

For single communities, however, the variation is often greater. There are six asparagus canneries in this district which run for a season of about one hundred days (March to June) canning the asparagus each day, as it is cut. In these six plants approximately 750 Chinese are employed and a few members of other races are found in executive positions and in the warehouse work.

There are no communities in the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin districts from which many resident laborers can be secured. The towns along the river are mere boat landings, with a few trading stores on the levees. Even the few regular white teamsters are usually secured by sending to employment agents in San Francisco and Sacramento. The greater part of the population of this section is composed of Portuguese, Italians, and a large number of Chinese and Japanese tenants, with their regular employees of the same races. The largest town is Walnut Grove, which has a large Chinese and Japanese "quarter," but comparatively few of these Asiatics live in the town for more than a few weeks at a time, the merchants, gamblers, and others being supported by the transient laborers who

are distributed from this point to the surrounding farms. The greater part of the regular ranch work of this lower river country is done by Japanese and Chinese and nearly all of the seasonal hand work is performed by migratory Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and East Indians, who come from other districts and move from ranch to ranch and community to community as needed.

There are several districts in northern California which specialize in growing hops. The Wheatland district, about 40 miles north of the city of Sacramento, has 1,190 acres of hops, which give employment to approximately 2,500 persons during the picking season of four or five weeks, beginning the latter part of August. There are not enough laborers present in the community, so that the three companies controlling this acreage send to Sacramento, San Francisco, and other distant places to secure pickers, the majority of whom in this district are white persons. In the hop yards near Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County, the conditions are somewhat similar and the majority of the pickers are white persons. In a district south of the city of Sacramento, along the Sacramento River, there are hop yards comprising 305 acres in all, and on the American River near Perkins about 1,100 acres are devoted to hop growing. In both of these districts the pickers must be brought from elsewhere, and the Japanese are the main source of supply.

The Santa Clara Valley specializes very largely in growing garden seed, deciduous fruit, vegetables, and berries. Of the deciduous fruits, cherries, apricots, and prunes are produced in the greatest quantities. These crops all require extra hand laborers at certain seasons. The seed farms employ many hand laborers in the intensive care of the plants from March to November. The berries give employment to extra workers during the spring months. The picking of cherries and apricots in May and June and prunes in August demand the greatest number of workers. For the picking of the fruit near San Jose residents of that city are employed to a great extent, but farther out, and about Sunnyvale and Mountain View, the orchardists depend largely upon migratory laborers. For cutting apricots for drying, a large number of white persons, principally women and children, are employed. There were 352 persons employed on 13 fruit ranches investigated during the apricot and peach picking season.

The Pajaro Valley, which lies partly in Monterey and partly in Santa Cruz counties, comprises about 43,000 acres, of which about one-half is taken up with general farms which require comparatively little labor, while 15,000 acres are in apple orchards, 1,000 acres in strawberries, 300 acres in other berries, 500 acres in peaches, apricots, and other deciduous fruit, about 1,000 acres in beets, and 500 acres in potatoes. In these specialized branches of agriculture some 4,000 persons are employed during the summer and autumn months to cultivate and harvest the crop. The population of the Pajaro Valley is estimated at nearly 15,000, approximately 5,000 of whom live in Watsonville. About one-half of the seasonal workers are drawn from the available residents of the community, while about 2,000 come in from other places for the busy months only.

The farms about Lindsay, Porterville, and Exeter, close to the foothills in Tulare County, are devoted almost entirely to orange orchards.