Mexicans, and East Indians in larger and larger numbers.

Two other points, namely, the standard of living and the work of women in the fields, may be passed over because they are dwelt upon in the next chapter of this report.

CHAPTER VII

JAPANESE FARMING: SOME COMMUNITY

OBSERVATIONS

Florin. A more detailed discussion of Japanese work and farming as observed in a few communities will add something to the general summary statement of the two chapters immediately preceding. Only four of those with which the writer had more than a passing acquaintance, gained five years ago, and which were visited again this last summer, will be passed under review. And, first of all, Florin, a community which has been written of until it has become famous and one hesitates to say anything more about it. It is, however, the best locality in the United States for the study of the problem connected with Japanese agricultural life. This fact and the fact that much that is untrue has been said of it, afford my apology for presenting the following details.1

The Japanese Population and Farms. The Japanese are a more conspicuous element of the population and in farming in the Florin district than in any other important community in California. They cultivate on their own account

1 The writer made a report on Japanese Tenant and Landowning Farmers of the Florin District to the Immigration Commission (see Reports, Vol. 24, pp. 401-412). Free use is made of it in this chapter.

more than one third of the land, and do a large share of the work on many of the other ranches. The total number of Japanese residing there throughout the year is between eight and nine hundred, and to those several hundred are added during the busiest seasons when strawberries and grapes are picked, packed, and shipped. In the settled population there are some 255 farmers, some 159 married women (most of them the wives of farmers), and some 150 children under 14 years of age. The business men, laborers in the basket factory, and farm hands residing there regularly, making allowance for some duplication, add about 300.

The "Florin District." — Florin is a small village and shipping station, nine or ten miles south and east of Sacramento. The town stretches along a main highway for perhaps a third of a mile on either side of the railroad track. Roughly speaking the "Florin District" embraces some twenty square miles and, therefore, 12,000 or 13,000 acres, most of which is tillable. Grapes and strawberries are the chief crops, but wheat and "hay lands" combined give a large acreage. Florin is an agricultural town, its white grocer, butcher, and blacksmith, its two Japanese grocers, and several small shopkeepers supplying the needs of the farmers and their hands. The basket factory there located provides the baskets and crates necessary for shipping strawberries and grapes.

Twenty-five Years Ago. The Florin of to-day differs greatly in population and agricultural in

dustries from the Florin of twenty-five years ago. Though a couple of hundred acres were given to the cultivation of strawberries and a considerable amount of grapes were grown at that time, wheat and hay were the main crops, and the farms, all of them owned by white families and few of them farmed by tenants, were large. The continuous use of the thin, hard soil for these crops gradually impoverished it, however, so that it was necessary to find crops, such as strawberries and grapes, for which it was better adapted. The older order has largely passed away, and the new one has been shaped pretty much by the Japanese.

The Japanese and a New Florin. - The commercial growing of grapes began nearly thirty-five years ago, and by 1890 it had made considerable progress. The growing of strawberries on a very limited scale came later. Much of the handwork in the vineyards in the early days was done by the Chinese, a comparatively small number of whom were settled in the community. The first Japanese found employment there just twenty years ago; by 1900 they did practically all of the work in the strawberry patches and a good share of that in the vineyards. The Chinese soon disappeared. For fifteen years, then, the Japanese have been the most important element in the hired labor supply. During that time field after field has been leveled, ditched, and pumping machinery installed for irrigation, and the land devoted to strawberries for a few years while vines were developing, and then turned into a vineyard by their labor. To-day strawberry patches

of from 2 to 10 acres and vineyards of much larger size arrest the visitor's attention. The hay, wheat, and waste land, though still extensive, makes little impression on his mind. During that time, also, wages paid Japanese for temporary work advanced from $1 per day the rate at which the Chinese had been paid to $1.50 to $1.75 or $1.80 in 1909, and to $2 to $2.50 in 1914. The basket factory was established ten years ago. At first most of the employees were white women and girls of the community. They were found to be unsatisfactory in certain respects and were rapidly displaced by Japanese, who by 1909 filled practically all of the positions. It is said that the white women were difficult to manage, could not be depended upon to report for work regularly, and, though paid by the piece (for making grape and strawberry baskets), did not wish to work more than ten hours per day, or work overtime, or on Sundays, as it was thought the interests of the business required. In all of these matters the Japanese were more acceptable to their employers, who are white men prominently connected with shipping firms in Sacramento. Paid by the piece, they formerly worked twelve to fourteen hours per day, and on Sundays, when the demand was such as to make long hours profitable.1 At present all of the employees, except a representative of the non-resident manager, are Japanese. Most of the thirty-five or so are women, and with few exceptions they are married. A few young children are brought to the factory, where 1 See Immigration Commission, Reports, Vol. 24, pp. 405-406.