IN CALIFORNIA 253 



word to drop. Children therefore can gather 

 prunes as capably as grown-ups, and so the work 

 engages whole families. Much of the rural popula- 

 tion of Central California is Italian, and upon such 

 labor some of it women and children brought out 

 for the occasion from the towns and cities the or- 

 chardists depend for their pickers. Tents are 

 pitched in the orchards, cook stoves set up, and the 

 family life is transferred thither for the month or 

 so that the picking lasts; for it is a leisurely busi- 

 ness and the trees are not shaken except to get the 

 tag end of the yield. It is an Arcadian sort of labor 

 under the open sky before the rains are due, and 

 fittingly carried forward with the accompaniment of 

 children's laughter and the songs of Italy. 



"Makes a fellow feel like going into the business," 

 I said to the Professor. 



"Well," he replied, "fruit raising in California 

 is a good business if you run it right. Don't make 

 the mistake, though, of thinking the climate does it 

 all. Lots of lazy shallow-pates have gone into it on 

 that basis and landed in the sheriff's office. It takes 

 brains in California the same as anywhere else, and 

 some capital; bugs and fungus and once in so often 

 an untimely frost or hot spell, will keep both busy. 

 There are deciduous fruit ranches in the Santa Clara 

 Valley you couldn't touch at a thousand dollars 



