PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 91 



work to attend to. I took some time to study the question, and at last 

 I rented that orchard on contract for about twenty-two years. General 

 Chipman drew up the contract. Now, when I let that orchard to that 

 man it was in good condition, and the question comes in, is it profitable 

 or advisable for fruit-growers to lease their orchards to Chinese? The 

 Chinaman will not go to work and cultivate and care for an orchard. 

 They will not do that. When the time comes to pick their fruit, what 

 little they do pick, they take long poles, and the peaches are thrashed 

 off the trees with these poles. A gentleman told me a year ago last 

 summer that he could not find a peach in California that was fit to eat, 

 and I do not wonder thereat. Well, I broke the contract last fall, and 

 I took my orchard back. If I hadn't done so, I wouldn't have had any 

 orchard. 



General Chipman: My friend, Mr. Bogue, has a very desirable place, 

 and, as a lawyer, once in awhile I draw up contracts. Well, Mr. Bogue 

 got it into his head that he wanted me to draw up a contract, and I did 

 so. I told him the thing would happen exactly as it did happen. 

 However, I drew up the contract for him. My friend Bogue got the 

 Chinaman where he wanted him, and the Chinaman didn't do anything 

 of the kind. 



Now, while I am on my feet, I want to say that we are trying to break 

 up the large land holdings in this State. The farmers wanted to grow 

 wheat at a profit, and they were looking up some way by which they 

 could hold on to their places, and some of the large land-holders in my 

 vicinity struck on the idea of renting to Chinese, and most of the leases 

 I drew up were for long terms of years. This renting of orchards to 

 Chinese did not produce a dollar of profit to the State. The State was 

 out about $12,000 income by this method. It was a great temptation to 

 the land-holder to find that he could build up a sufficient income by 

 renting his orchard to Chinamen on ten-year leases. The time is com- 

 ing when the large land-holder has got to quit. They have got to with- 

 draw their farming operations, and offer the people some means of 

 making a profitable living, by breaking up their holdings, so that there 

 may be more diversity of products. What else have you got to offer as 

 an inducement to live in California? This diversification of fruit-grow- 

 ing is going to make it possible for the large land-holder to get back his 

 money. You can do it if you want to, but you will not, so long as you 

 make ten-year leases to Chinamen. In that time, the Chinaman can 

 make himself rich and go back to China, leaving to the owner of the 

 land a worn-out orchard, which is of no value whatever. 



Question, 7s female and child help satisfactory during fruit harvests f 

 Mr. Hutchinson, of Fresno: In drying fruit, I do not know in our 

 county how we could get along without female help. They come from 

 the city to our ranches during the season, and make good wages, and 

 they are of good character, so far as I know. During the season I 

 employ about twenty ladies to cut fruit, and the average amount that 

 they earned at the work, cutting 60 pounds to the box, this year was 

 $1 65 per day, so you can see that they do good work. Chinamen get 

 the same prices, and they will earn just about half of that. They have 

 only been able to make 5 cents where the girls could earn 15 cents. I 

 don't know how we could get our fruit dried if the ladies did not turn 

 out and help. There are about eight hundred women at Fresno engaged 



