92 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



in packing raisins and other fruits. The Chinamen do not begin to 

 compare with the women in speed, care, and quality of the work, and 

 the latter take care of the money and put it to good use. I will say 

 that the neatest work I have ever seen done has been by women. 



Major Berry: The swiftest cutters I have employed have been young 

 girls, twelve years old and upward. It is the best labor I can get, 

 although my good wife opposed that. I employed fifty- two young girls. 

 Boys make first-rate workmen picking prunes. There was a movement 

 on foot to put off the fall school-term a month, in order to give the boys 

 the full benefit of the fruit season. I have paid the girls in salaries, 

 $6,980 this season. Every girl dressed herself up in new, clean clothes, 

 felt that they were somebody, and not a dollar of their earnings went 

 into the saloons. 



A Member: I will say that the orange crop of Southern California is 

 packed by ladies. We find them much superior to men and much more 

 reliable, so much so that I am afraid a man cannot get a job down there 

 at this work. 



A Member: I will say that the grapes around Woodland are entirely 

 picked by ladies. They are always there in time to do the work. The 

 men employed are sometimes there, and sometimes not. Japanese help 

 is not always reliable. Around my place I sometimes employ Japanese 

 to pick grapes. One day they are there, and the next day nearly all of 

 them are drunk. I cannot depend on them. Female help is the most 

 satisfactory help we have. 



Mr. Sprague: I think the male sex is getting it very hard just now. 

 I knew a man in Los Angeles last year who tried for two days to get 

 work of that kind, and failed. He could get a job quick enough if he 

 were a woman. With the exception of the Earl Fruit Packing Com- 

 pany, no one but ladies are employed to pack the orange crop of South- 

 ern California. If this goes on, the men will have to get off the earth, 

 and let women take their places. There is another point: No one ought 

 to employ too young help. I do not think that girls under ten years of 

 age should be employed. 



General Chipman: The employment of women and children helps to 

 settle the country. A man will come to the country with his family, 

 and will have to make his first payment before he can make anything 

 out of his land. But if he can send his children out to work to help 

 the older orchardists, then he is safe from his creditors, and can make 

 enough money to keep up his payments. Two years ago this discussion 

 would have raised a great deal of ferment in this convention. The large 

 bulk of the men of this State, men who produce fruit — the small orchard- 

 ists — never have counted on alien labor, which enabled the large 

 orchardists to crowd out the small ones, and have the same old thing 

 over again. Instead of large wheat holdings, we have large orchards. 



Mr. Walton: In discussing this question, in regard to the employ- 

 ment of children, it seems to me that but little attention has been paid 

 to the boys. We commenced a little over ten years ago to pack canned 

 fruit for market. At that time we were hard up for labor, so when we 

 commenced the packing, we got small children to help us. The trouble 

 was to take care of them, so their mothers came with them, and we hired 

 a hall for their accommodation. It was really a kindergarten, but we 

 took care of the children in that way. They were four, five, and six 

 years old at that time when we set them cutting fruit. They are now 



