12 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Labour Market. 



In Santa Clara County, for general farm work, the average 

 wages are 4s. a day and board, or 6s. a day without board. A 

 few pay more and some pay less. When fruit is picked by the 

 day 6s. is usually paid without board. 



The average contract price for gathering prunes is 9s. a ton. 

 When Grapes are picked by contract 4s. a ton is usually paid, 

 though the Chinese and Japanese take contracts to pick as low 

 as 3s. 9cL, 3s. id., and even 3s. per ton. These men are a 

 curse to California, and any other place where there are many of 

 them. A man can pick from a ton to a ton and a half a day. 

 Men working at fruit driers, engaged in carrying trays and 

 handling fruit, receive from 5s. to 6s. per day without board. 



Shipping Green Fruit East. 



Whether it pays best to dry fruit or ship it green depends 

 upon the quality and variety of the fruit. The quality, in turn, 

 depends upon the soil in which the fruit is grown, and the climatic 

 conditions by which it is surrounded. As a rule, fruit grown in 

 the mountains has better keeping qualities than that which is 

 grown in the valleys. The quality of fruit, however, depends 

 upon so many things that it is not possible to deal definitely with 

 altitude. 



Shippers claim that cherries produced in the Santa Clara 

 Valley keep better than those from any other part of the State. 

 This claim, however, may have to be modified when cherries are 

 more extensively grown in our mountain districts. 



Our cherries are now shipped in refrigerator cars to New York, 

 Boston, Chicago, and nearly all the principal cities in the East. 

 Santa Clara County is also noted for its autumn and winter 

 pears. There are other districts which send out Bartlett pears 

 equally good, both as to flavour and keeping qualities with those 

 raised here ; but their autumn and winter pears are not in such 

 demand as ours. Shippers often send them to the East in 

 ventilated cars, and on arrival they are placed in cold storage, 

 where they keep through the winter till as late as March and 

 April. Thus they are in market at a time when the season for 

 other fruits has closed, and as a result bring high prices. Good 

 table grapes are also shipped East profitably in refrigerators. 



