TABLE 73.-Number of women packers earning each specified amount per day, by general nativity and race.

It will be noted that the earnings of the women on a piece basis vary greatly, from less than $1 per day in four cases to $2 or more in nine cases. The median wage is $1.25 per day. The average for the two comparatively large groups, viz, the natives and the Italians, is practically the same, approximately $1.42 per day. The wages of the men employed other than those who occupy positions as clerical help or foremen vary from $1.50 to $3 per day. The median wage is $2. The natives occupy most of the remunerative positions, as is shown by the fact that their average wage is $2.17 per day, as against an average wage of $2 paid to the other white laborers covered by the table.

CHAPTER VI.

IMMIGRANT LABOR IN THE ORCHARDS ABOUT SUISUN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA.

The tillable land of the Suisun Valley lies in Solano County to the northeast, north, and northwest of the city of Suisun and within a radius of about 8 miles of that place. On the south are the swamps of the Sacramento River.

In the lowlands hay is raised in large quantities, while on the higher lands and closer to the foot of the mountains are found the fruit orchards covering about 5,000 acres. The principal fruits grown in this valley are pears, prunes, plums, peaches, apricots, and cherries. The amount of these products shipped through the dried-fruit houses was estimated as follows in 1908: Apricots, 1,000 tons; peaches, 1,000 tons; prunes, 600 tons; pears, 600 tons; and almonds, 500 tons. Practically all of the apricots, peaches, and prunes are dried. The amount of fresh fruit shipped through the green-fruit packing houses was given in 1908 as 400 cars of pears, 100 cars of plums, and 50 cars of cherries.

The growing and especially the harvesting of this fruit, as has been shown in the reports on the other fruit-growing districts, require a large number of laborers. The regular ranch work requiring teams is usually performed by white men, except on the ranches leased to Asiatics, where the lessee employs his countrymen. The pruning and irrigating of these orchards is nearly all done by Chinese, although on some ranches white men do this work. The picking and packing of the fruit begins with cherries in May and extends until the fall. It is in the picking and packing that a large number of laborers are required, and many races are drawn upon to supply this demand. In the picking, Japanese are the most numerous race employed, but there are a considerable number of transient white men and also Chinese engaged in picking fruit, and occasionally a few East Indians have been employed. The majority of the Japanese in this district are working as pickers. The packing is done largely by Chinese and to a less extent by white men and women. The cutting of fruit for drying is almost exclusively performed by white women and girls. The oldest race engaged in fruit work is the Chinese. At present there are between 100 and 125 Chinese in the district throughout the year. During the busy season their number increases to about 175. The Japanese, who are the most numerous, number about 150, who reside here throughout the year. During the picking season from 400 to 450 additional Japanese enter the valley, bringing the total population of this race to about 600. A few East Indians came into the valley in 1909, but were not favorably received. They were employed only as a last resort when men of other races could not be

secured. Many white men are employed in fruit harvesting in the district, but it is impossible to estimate their number as they are generally of the "hobo" type and do not remain long in the community. Suisun is between San Francisco and Sacramento on the main railroad line for both the Eastern and Northern States; consequently, a large transient element is continually passing through this district. Hence, the ranchers in this locality never fear the possibility of a lack of white hands, for there are always plenty of men willing to work for a day or so and then pass on.

The Chinese do practically all of the pruning and irrigating here and a great deal of the packing. Japanese are employed principally as pickers. White men engage in the various occupations, but usually work as teamsters. White women and girls are employed as cutters of the fruit to be dried and occasionally as packers of green fruit.

When Chinese were first employed in the beginning of the fruit industry in this locality they were paid 70 cents per day and boarded themselves. At the present time they receive $1 per day without board where they are employed throughout the year, but those who come in from outside districts to work during the busy season receive about $1.45 per day without board, and the more skilled fruit packers are paid from $1.50 to $1.65 per day without board where they work on a time basis. When the Japanese first entered this district, some fifteen years ago, they are said to have received lower wages than the Chinese. The first Japanese seasonal workers were paid from 80 to 90 cents per day without board. At present the Japanese, during the slack winter months, are paid $1.25 per day without board and during the summer months their wages are often as high as $1.65 per day. White men receive from $1 to $1.50 with board.

As has been said, the Chinese were the first race employed in large numbers as laborers in the orchards. They must have been employed here during the sixties, for they were leasing land as early as 1875. They constituted the main source of laborers until the coming of the Japanese. The number of white laborers has never been large compared to the number of Asiatics. The Japanese entered this district over fifteen years ago and at first their numbers increased slowly, so that twelve years ago there were not more than 50 in the valley. To secure employment in the beginning the Japanese underbid the Chinese fruit workers, but the Japanese would in time have been employed anyway, for the Chinese, since the exclusion law was enacted, have become scarce and the majority of them are now old men not capable of doing much work. Within the last ten years the Japanese have become the predominant element in the labor supply, but have never secured as complete control of the labor market as they have in other agricultural districts because of the available Chinese and transient white men.

One large cherry ranch in this district employs white help only. At one time Chinese were employed exclusively, but when the exclusion law was passed the Chinamen were discharged and white men only have been employed since 1884. This plan has been successful, as the rancher has the reputation of employing "whites only," and an adequate supply of white laborers has been secured every year,

but the employer thinks that if all ranches in the community employed "whites" only, the number would be inadequate and he would find it necessary to employ Asiatics.

The Chinese are regarded here, as in so many other places, as the most satisfactory race of fruit laborers. The Japanese were regarded as a good class of laborers when they were first employed, but are now disliked because of alleged lack of regard for their contracts and their proneness to take advantage of employers to raise wages. The opposition to the Japanese is not as pronounced here as elsewhere, however, for the still available Chinese and the abundant supply of the "hobo white" element as a possibility have kept their demands within bounds. The transient white men are too irregular to make satisfactory farm hands. The East Indians have seldom been employed because they lack vitality; they are generally filthy, and are not adapted to the work to be done.

A large number of both Japanese and Chinese buy the fruit as it stands on the trees in the orchards for a lump sum. It is said that the Chinese last year bought fruit on about 200 acres of orchards, and the Japanese bought about the same amount. It was estimated by a shipper of green fruit that the Chinese in 1908 controlled, by buying fruit and leasing land, about 20 per cent of the green-fruit crop, and by the same means the Japanese controlled about 15 per cent.

The usual method in buying fruit is for several Japanese or several Chinese to associate together in making the contract for purchasing the fruit of an orchard. They share the expenses of harvesting the crop and divide the profits realized. These groups require practically no capital, as they get advances from the fruit-distributing companies with which they carry on the work of the harvest, and all members of the group work in gathering the crop. The shipping company obtains a mortgage on the crop to secure its advance, so that the landowner and the shipping company both look to the crop as their security. The fruit companies charge interest on their loans and the fruit buyers are bound to sell the crop through the company making the advance. The shippers charge 7 per cent commission on the selling price for handling the crop. All checks are made out to the ranch owner and pass through the hands of the fruit company, so that both have a chance to take out what is due them before the proceeds are paid over to the Japanese or Chinese buyers. As a rule, ranchers and fruit companies dealing with Chinese, whose reputation for commercial honesty is above reproach, are not as rigid in their requirements as to security as they are when dealing with Japanese, who can not in all cases be relied upon.

The practice of giving advances has resulted from the competition of fruit companies to secure the marketing of as much of the crop as possible. The person who secures the advance binds himself to market through that particular company, while if the owner retained control of his fruit he could market it through whichever company he chose.

The Chinese began to lease land in the valley as early as 1875, while the leasing land by Japanese dates back only eight or nine years. At the present time the Japanese lease 792 acres, of which 342 acres, in tracts ranging in size from 4 to 68 acres, are rented for cash, 48296°-VOL 24-11-15