234 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



class small farmers, farmers' sons, and a few farm laborers. Several 

 circumstances have militated against the success of Japanese in indus- 

 trial pursuits, and many who found their first employment in the 

 canneries and as section hands and general construction laborers have 

 shown a strong tendency to leave such employment for agricultural 

 work or for occupations in the cities. It may be said further that 

 none of these industries, save salmon canning, has been materially 

 assisted by or has become dependent upon Japanese labor. With the 

 beet-sugar industry in several states and certain other agricultural 

 industries in California it is different, for the farmers in many 

 localities have for years relied upon Asiatic labor until a situation has 

 developed in which the substitution of other races will involve incon- 

 venience and will require radical changes in order to make the 

 necessary adjustment. 



In 1909 it is probable that not far from 30,000 Japanese were 

 engaged in agricultural pursuits in California during the summer 

 months. As laborers they occupy a dominant position in most of the 

 intensive, specialized agriculture which has come to prevail, and espe- 

 cially in that which involves much hand work and is seasonal in char- 

 acter. The Japanese do practically all the hand work in the berry 

 patches, two-thirds of that in the sugar-beet fields, perhaps one-half 

 that in the vineyards, and a somewhat smaller part of that in the 

 fields devoted to raising vegetables and in the orchards. In the hop- 

 yards they do not generally predominate except in the training and 

 care of the vines and in picking in some localities, while on general 

 farms they find little employment. On farms conducted by white men 

 they do very little of the work with teams and have as their share the 

 smaller part of the hand work in vineyards and orchards except during 

 the busiest seasons, whether during cultivation or harvest, when they 

 occupy a much more conspicuous position, and their dominancy is in 

 part due to this fact. 



Because of differences of climate, elevation, and soil, much spe- 

 cialization in farming has developed where the problems of transpor- 

 tation and labor could be solved. First the Chinese and then the 

 Japanese have been organized and easily moved from one community 

 to another, so that no great restriction has been placed upon a spe- 

 cialization which has called for many laborers at one time and rela- 

 tively few at another. Many California communities have a degree 

 <>f -|u.rialization in agriculture which makes it necessary to indiuv 

 many persons to come from other localities to assist for a time in the 



