Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-16
PRUNES OF SAN JOSE
They Can Be Found in Every
Market in the World.
GREAT CROPS RAISED
OVER A HUNDRED MILLION
POUNDS THE OUTPUT.
Industry Hampered by the Scarcity Of
Labor - Beautiful Sights in the
Land Of Perpetual Bloom
GREAT CROPS RAISED
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.


Special Correspondence Of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald
SAN JOSE, Cal. September 8, 1905.
It must be a wonderful sight TO see lbs
solid square miles of FRUIT rees in blossom.
That spectacle may be witnessed from the
mountains that divide the valley Of Santa
Cruz from the valley of Santa Clara. few
miles south Of San Francisco bay. In the
spring of every year. This great world of
bloom, dotted with 10000 homes and wa
tered by thousand mountain streams that
find paths through the orchards to San
Francisco bay. cannot be seen elsewhere,
for Santa Clara valley is vast orchard
Of six million trees-the most fruitful In all
the world. One-half of the prunes produced
In the United States grown here. and
no other section of the world produces so
many cherries nor so many aprtcots. You
can find Santa Clara valley fruit in every
civilized market of the world, and the an
nual value of the crop Is more than twelve
million dollars. Not even the figs of Smyrna
nor the currants of Greece are SO widely
distributed, shipped in such large guam
titles as the prunes of the Santa Clara val
ley.
The farmers here cure one hundred and
forty million pounds OF fruit every year;
they can thirty million pounds, and they
ship twenty million pounds of fresh fruit
to all parts OF the world. The prune or
chards alone, within the vicinity Of San
Jose, cover "a 600 acres The entire valley
between the green foothills Is continuous
orchard. broken only by an occasional grain
field. the mountain streams and well-paved
and watered roadways, which. taken alto
gether. are probably better than can be
found in any other part of the United States.
Every mile or so Is great tank OF wa
ter, and there is a continuous line OF sprin-
klers laying the dust which At this sea-
of the year Is necessary, because the
fields along the roadsides are black with
trays of drying fruit.
Picking and Packing Prunes.
When the prunes are picked they are
carefully washed by hand, in warm water.
and sorted. All imperfect fruit is taken
out. The rest are then dipped in a mild So
luton of I've, which so cracks the skin that
the heat of the sun can penetrate to the
pulp. The prunes are then spread in large
wicker trays, about a yard square. ana
placed upon the grass or stubble or the
wheat fields. Two three times day
they are stirred and rolled over. so that
they may be evenly cured on all Sides
When they are thoroughly dried they are
taken to the packing house, and there are
shoyeled into bins where they are al
lowed to remain until the rush of the pick
ing and curing season is over.
You have doubtless noticed that prunes
like strawberries and other fruit, have a
disposition to put their best foot forward;
to make the best appearance possible. Inc
two upper layers in the box are always We'll
chosen and arranged in perfect order, like
the cadets at West Point Military Academy
when on parade 1t may have some time oc-
Cured to you that this phenomenon Is not
due to accident but to design. 1t occurs In
a curious way. The cured prunes are sorted
into sizes by .Quick-fingered girls, who SIT
at tables with enormous piles of fruit be-
fore them, picking out and separating three
grades-large, medium and small. In the
packing room the boxes are all ready and
the covers. sometimes of glass, are nailed
down and protected with fancy paper, bear
ing the trademark of the firm and covered
with gilt embroidery. The bottoms are
open, however, and the boxes are placed
top-side down upon the tables. where the
young women carefully place two layers IN
rows, nicely fitted in, upon the glass or
wooden lid. The boxes are then passed
along under a chute, which fills them with
heller SHELTER fruit from the bins; the sur
face is leveled by a stroke of the hand
and the bottom Of the box is nailed on by
automatic machinery.
The packing is done very rapidly It fol-
lows the fruit-canning season and gives en-
ployment to large numbers of city people,
farmers families and students from the
different educational institutions of the
state Around the canneries of San Jose
YOU will find hundreds of families from the
adjacent farming regions, camping out:
Within the packing houses you Will find
cheers and students from the state uni
versity. from Leland-Stanford University.
from the College of Notre Dame. Santa
Clara College, the normal schools and other
institutions, and they get good wages. There
are two shifts, working night and day, for
time is precious.
Scarcity Of Labor.
The production of prunes Is restricted by
the difficulty of getting labor. Perhaps
you saw a story in the newspapers not long
ago that Martin Seeley, who has big Or
40 pfron
with a man in Central America to furnish
him 800 monkeys trained to pick prunes.
Somebody put up a joke on Mr.. Seeley by
the publication of this yarn, and the next
day came the announcement that oinciais
of the labor unions had filed protest with
the immigration commissioner, taxing the
grounds that this was a violation or the
contract-labor law.
There IS a good deal of significance In
this satire. Almost every interest and IN
dustry on the Pacific coast is suffering
from the inability to obtain labor, ana hlgh
wages are demanded by farm, factory and
domestic help. They pay cooks $40 "a month
ont here and chambermaids $50, While the
wages of ordinary laborers are twice as
high as they are in the eastern states.
1 have not seen single employer of labor
since I have been in California who does
not prefer Chinese to all other classes OF
Labor. For example, Mr.. Phillips Of Stock
ton, in describing the difference between
white men and Chinese, said the other day;
when / send out gang OF White men
always have to send a foreman with them
to keep them up to their work. and when
o'clock comes they quit on the first stroke
of the hour regardless of the consequences.
When I send out gang of Cinnamon they
need no foreman. / tell them what must
be done that day and they do 1t before they
return, even If it keeps them after dark.
NV Chinese tenants always bring around
the money for their rent two or three days
before the end of the month. l have to
send collector after the rent OF my white
tenants, and they usually tell him to come
again next week.
Public sentiment down here is almost
unanimously in favor of restricted immi-
CATION, because 1t is considered absolutely
necessary for the development Of the re-
sources Of the state. The prune industry
cannot be extended unless something Is
DONE But digress.
Rivals in Prune Industry.
Bosnia and Servia. two little countries
down on the Balkan peninsula on the east
shore of the Adriatic. are the greatest COM
petitors Of the Santa Clara valley in the
prune business. They put up about 100 co.,
GOO pounds and France about 7O,OoO00o
pounds year, but the San Jose Is COM
.AoV1