AGRICULTURAL WAGES g is 



harvest the pruning of the vines requires hand workers. The citrus- 

 fruit orchards demand more than the ordinary amount of cultivating, 

 and in gathering the oranges and lemons a great many men are 

 needed, for the picking and packing must be performed with care. 

 Much labor is necessary also for the picking and packing of the 

 deciduous fruit and for pruning the trees. In preparing such fruit 

 for drying, the cutting and sulphuring gives employment to many 

 more persons, especially women and girls employed in cutting. Beans 

 must be hand-hoed once or twice during the summer, and later, in 

 the threshing, many men are required. The growing of hops involves 

 much hand labor in the pruning, stringing, and training of the vines, 

 and later, a very much larger force is necessary for the picking. It is 

 generally stated that where two men can do the plowing and culti- 

 vating 50 men are required for the hand work of pruning, stringing, 

 and training vines in the hopyards. A still larger -number are needed 

 during the short harvest season. Asparagus, celery, figs, and nuts 

 also require extra hands for seeding, cultivating, or harvest. Straw- 

 berries are one of the most intensive crops grown. Finally the irri- 

 gation of fields and orchards requires considerable care and many 

 men are employed for that work alone. 



The matter of securing an adequate number of laborers to perform 

 all of the intensive handwork required in connection with these crops 

 is the more difficult because of the specialization of most communities 

 in one or more of these crops, the seasonal character of the work, and 

 the temporary demands in allied industries at the same seasons, and 

 because the supply of laborers permanently located in these districts 

 is hardly adequate to supply the need of regular farm workers and 

 temporary laborers in canneries and packing houses in the towns. 

 Because of their climatic conditions, soil, and topography certain 

 districts in the state are best adapted to certain of these crops, and 

 the majority of farms of these districts specialize in the one or more 

 intensive crops to which they are best adapted. Any one of these 

 specialized branches of agriculture does not as a rule require many 

 laborers throughout the year, but only certain processes at various 

 stages of growth make an urgent demand for workers, and in a dis- 

 trict specializing mainly in one crop this demand for large forces of 

 men on many ranches comes within a short period of time. Not 

 only do the farms require these additional workers for the short 

 harvest seasons, but dependent upon many of these products there 

 are also factories and canning and packing establishments, which 



