Leasing and the Labor Situation. The leasing of orchards and vineyards (these are much less important than the orchards) in the Vaca Valley is intimately connected with the labor situation there. Most of the leasing is closely related to a labor contract and there is little of permanency in it. The acreage leased by Japanese expanded with their increasing domination of the labor supply until some 7,359 acres were controlled in this way in 1910. It has changed little as other elements in the labor supply have become more important in more recent years. Many of the tenants after a few years here have migrated elsewhere — to Lodi, Fresno, Penryn to find better opportunities, and others, as a rule, have come forward to fill their places. Seasonal Labor Required. -The Vaca Valley is one of many places in California where for climatic and other reasons, specialization in crops has been extreme and the labor problem growing out of this specialization a difficult one to solve. The landowners and tenants with a limited amount of regular help do the necessary cultivating of the orchards and vineyards, but from May, when the harvest season begins, until August, when it ends, much additional help is required to pick and pack cherries, pears, plums, and peaches, and to pick, cut, and dry peaches and apricots. On ranches investigated for the Immigration Commission in 1908, it was found that those temporarily employed usually for a few days or a few weeks at most on the given ranch were as 7.5 to each one regularly employed. The settled population, old and young, urban and rural, fruit-growing and non-fruit-growing, was about 5,000 at that time. To these about 4,000 were added from other localities to meet the needs of the community during the busiest part of the harvest season. Some Labor History. - Fruit growing about Vacaville was built largely on Chinese labor. Several years after the Exclusion Act went into effect about 1,000 Chinese still found employment there. Much of the work was done“ under contract,” and, because a convenient and profitable arrangement for the orchardist, some of the orchards were leased to them. Just when the Japanese first came there in search of work is in doubt, but their appearance marked the effective beginning of their employment as agricultural laborers in the United States. In 1889 about sixty were picking fruit on contracts. For seventeen years their numbers increased. Their presence hastened the reduction in the number of the Chinese and at times there is reason to believe they caused the number of white men seeking work to diminish. Not only did they come in comparatively large numbers; they were easily secured through bosses, were easily provided for, and were found to be more satisfactory than the transient white men seeking employment, especially after 1900. Moreover, to begin with they were the cheapest laborers. Their contract prices were at first lower than those of the Chinese, and their day wages were lower than those of white men. This underbidding diminished, however, as they |