River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-01-29
FRUIT RIOTS III ORCHARDS.
Tons Upon Tons Go to Waste Because
of Insufficient Help in North
ern California.

To the California orchardists the
labor question is now the absorbing
problem. One county alone (Santa
Clara has a hundred square miles of
bearing trees, the biggest fruit drier
in the world, the biggest fruit pack
ing house in the world. and the big
gest fruit cannery in the world.
There is $1,000, 900 invested in the can
ming industry, and this year $780,
900 was used in carrying on the busl-
ness in that line in that one county
This, says an Oakland report to the
New York Times, is tremendous
change from the experiment made in
1872 by j. NJ. Dawson in San Jose,
when he began the canning of fruit
in Santa Clara county by means OF
an ordinary cook stove,
The past season that county sup
piled for the market 100000 pounds
of canned fruit, 80,oOO,OoO pounds Of
dried prunes, 30,0O0,0O0 pounds Of
green fruit, 100000 pounds of dried
apriccts, and many hundred carloads
of berries, tomatoes, asparagus, po-
tatoes and other vegetables. Tons
upon tons of fruit have rotted in the
orchards on account of a lack of la
Dor. During the years the Chinese
exclusion act has been in force there
has been a steady decrease in the
number of Chinese available for work
in the orchards-employm for
which they appear to have special
fitness. In recent years hundreds OF
Japanese have come to San Francis
co, and it was thought they would
prove excellent substitutes. But it
is found that they are not as indus
trious as the Chinese. They are not
as expert in the picking of fruit.
They demand higher wages, they are
swift in going on strike, and they do
not submit to orders as cheerfully
as do the Chinese.
In this state the public schools do
not commence the fall term until
late in September, the object being
to permit the children to work in the
orchards. On the smaller places the
women of the family work as we'll as
the children, but the task of handling
the orchards increase, year by year,
in area and bearing capacity, that it
is now impossible to secure enough
help to supply the demand. The fact
that the busy season lasts only about
three months adds to the perplexity
of the situation, for there is compar-
atively no employment nine months
in the year for the thousands of adj
ditional persons needed in August,
September and October.
Men do not take kindly to picking
prunes, as the work requires that one
should get down on hands and knees
on the plowed ground, Astounding in
Jumps of dirt as hard as stones, and
pick up the prunes one by one. In
the lowest grade it takes 139 prunes,
dried, to make a pound, and there
ire 100000 in a ton. OF the largest
size there are $4,000 in a ton. Hence
it will be seen that the picking up
of prunes enough to make even sim
gle ton is a tedious job.
At Campbell, five miles south Of
San Jose, is the largest fruit drier in
the world. 1t used this year $4,000
trays three by eight feet. Work he
gan about the middle of August
with apricots, and has but fairly
closed. In favorable weather the
fruit would dry in five days, in which
case 100000 trays of fruit would be
dried in 60 days at this one estab-
lishment. The company utilizes IL
= T e.,
an interesting and attractive scene is
presented when the season is fairly
on.
Gamers paid last year from $50 to
$25 per ton for apricots and little
less for peaches. For drying pur-
poses apricots ranged from eight
dollars to SIS per ton and peaches
from three dollars to SIS. The grow
ers have not made any money, but
the packing companies and the can
ners have and will make even better
profits on the stock now undisposed
of, as there has been steady in
crease in demand of late. The Cali.
fornia Fruit Gamers association,
organized about four years ago,
owns 26 canneries and controls the
situation as to the prices paid for
fruit, and, naturally, is opposed to
an extraordinary expansion of the
bank accounts of the orcharlists.
The latter do not anticipate such an
event under any circumstances, but
insist that they are not getting their
share of the money paid for their
product, and hence entertain no
pleasant feelings toward this asso-
citation, the packers or the railroad
companies.