Fruits, Vegetables and Ge?ieral hiterests, 25 



ment. The value of a diversified industry comes into view, 

 and with the accession of population, industries become more 

 diversified.' 



"In the leading fruit districts whole families 'camp out' 

 and gather fruit by contract. Japanese laborers are increasing 

 in numbers. Hundreds of girls and women are employed in 

 the canneries. At Fresno they are paid $1.75 a day. It is 

 certain, however, that there will be a scarcity of labor in a 

 few years more unless an unexpected increase in immigration 

 takes place. The lack of labor is the only doubtful feature 

 about the future of fruit growing. Many of the fruit growers, 

 it may be said, emplo}- Chinese, and wish that they could ob- 

 tain more. 



<'One of the coming industries of the state is the growing 

 of winter vegetables for the eastern markets. The bean crop 

 of 1890 was 1,000,000 centals, but many farmers think that 

 the crop of winter cabbages, onions, potatoes, peas and simi- 

 lar products will be more important in a few years than even 

 the Lima bean fields of Ventura. 



**A letter to the Salinas Index says : 'The enormous quan- 

 tity of potatoes per acre raised on the Buena Vista Ranch 

 this year is almost incredible. Several of the parties who 

 bought land there a little over a year ago, paying $100 per 

 acre, have raised this year upon the same upward of 200 sacks 

 per acre, and some as high as 300 sacks, and have sold them 

 on the ground at $1 to $1.25 per sack.' The winter fairs for 

 citrus fruits which have been held in Los Angeles, Riverside, 

 Pasadena, Oroville, Marysville, Sacramento and other cities of 

 northern and southern California are not less notable for their 

 winter vegetables and small fruits than for their oranges. 

 Beans, peas, red peppers, melons, tomatoes are exhibited at 

 these fairs as gathered from the open ground in January. 



"A letter from Los Angeles in reference to winter cabbages 

 says : 'A good time to sow the seed is the latter part of Sep- 

 tember or the first part of October. A person should be gov- 

 erned by the time the land will be in condition to set the 

 plants, as regarding the time of planting the seed. The 

 plants should be from four to six inches high when trans- 

 planted, and allowed to grow from five to seven weeks from 

 the seed. To get the very best results in raising plants, the 



A. H.— 3 



