ently due primarily to the previous mismanagement of "bosses." Several attempts to introduce Japanese into the orchards of the western part of the State have been abandoned because of the opposition of white laborers. These are the States in which Japanese occupy an important place as agricultural laborers. In Montana they are employed in smaller numbers in the beet fields about Billings. The 135 or 140 Japanese farm laborers in Texas do a small part of the work on the rice farms, in the truck gardens, and about the nurseries conducted by their countrymen. YEARLY EARNINGS. The approximate earnings during the preceding year of 375 Japanese farm laborers, from whom such information was secured in some of these States, are shown in the two following tables. TABLE 30.-Approximate earnings during the past year of Japanese farm laborers 18 years of age or over. WITH BOARD. Number earning Under $100. $100 and un- der $1,250. $1,250 and un- $1,500 and under $2,000. $2,000 or over 25 $327.72 44 405.32 1 1 1 2 1 WITHOUT BOARD. 260 $379.03 1 439.86 1 :: Oregon... TABLE 31.—Approximate ́earnings during the past year of Japanese farm TABLE 31.—Approximate earnings during the past year of Japanese farm laborers-Continued. It is apparent from the first table that the Japanese in Washington and Oregon earned the most ($405.32 with board and $439.86 without board as an average) during the year, while those in Colorado and Utah ($390 with board and $386.64 without board) earned more than the men in California ($327.72 with board and $379.03 without board). The second table shows the number of months worked during the year and the average earnings for those working each specified number of months. Of the Japanese receiving board in addition to wages 17 of the 25 in California and 42 of the 44 reporting in Washington and Oregon worked for twelve months, and of those not boarded, 129 of the 260 in California, 6 of the 22 in Colorado and Utah, and 18 of the 22 in Washington and Oregon worked twelve months. The larger percentage working twelve months in Washington and Oregon partly accounts for the larger average earnings for the year in those States. JAPANESE FARMERS. The investigation of the Japanese included an extensive investigation of the independent farming carried on by them in several States. This was always investigated in connection with the investigation of agricultural labor, and in 13 different localities included the collection of "family" and "agricultural" schedules from representative farmers of that race. Schedules were obtained for practically all of the 25 farms in Texas, and for 490 of the approximate 4,000 in the States of the Western Division. The schedules from the latter group of States were collected from various localities in northern Colorado and Utah, various localities in Oregon and Washington, and from eight localities or districts in California. The results of the special investigation have been presented in a number of special reports. The following statement is merely a summary of some of the details there presented. At most points this section is the same as one section of a general report on "Immigrant farmers of the Western States." Its presentation here is due to the desire to make this report comprehensive of the entire situation in so far as the Japanese are concerned. It is probable that more than 6,000 Japanese, including all partners, are farming on their own account in the continental territory of the United States. The number of farms or subdivisions of farms controlled by them in 1909 was perhaps in excess of 4,000, with a total acreage of more than 210,000. The following table is submitted as indicating roughly the acreage owned, the acreage leased, the total acreage owned or leased, and the number of holdings or farms the tenure of which was by Japanese, in the States of California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The number of holdings in the other Western States and in one colony in Florida is small and the total acreage only a few thousand. TABLE 32.-Land farmed by Japanese in 1909, by form of tenure and estimated number of holdings. A rough estimate based upon the average size of holdings in the several localities investigated. Estimated in part upon data contained in Japanese-American Yearbook; in part upon data collected by field agents. d Data collected by field agents. Does not include land leased for the production of sugar beets about Preston and Whitney. • Not including several tracts of land leased, exact number and acreage not ascertained. f Not including three or more farms, acreage not ascertained. Including an estimate of 16 farms with 654 acres in localities from which exact data were not secured. These figures should not be regarded as complete or as possessing a great degree of accuracy. Those for California are taken from the Japanese-American Yearbook and are compiled chiefly from the records of the secretaries of local Japanese associations. The form of tenure, number of acres, and use made of each holding are published in detail in this annual. The agents of the Commission were able to check these figures in several localities and found them to be fairly satisfactory, except that in some instances not all holdings. 66 66 a " Japanese and German-Russian farmers of northern Colorado; " Japanese farmers of northern Utah; "Immigrant labor in the deciduous fruit industry of the Vaca Valley; ""Immigrants in the fruit industries of the Newcastle district." Part II.- Immigrant farming of the reclaimed lands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, California," Ch. I-III; "Immigrants in Fresno County, Cal.," Ch. IV; "The Japanese farmers of Los Angeles County, Cal.; " Japanese tenant and landowning farmers of the Florin district, California; Japanese in the Pajaro Valley; "Japanese truck gardeners about Sacramento, Cal.; Japanese and Italian farmers in Oregon; Immigrant farmers about Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.; " and "The Japanese in Texas." 66 99 66 99 66 were reported. The figures presented, therefore, should be regarded as somewhat smaller than the proper figures would be. The figures submitted for Colorado are based in part upon the local reports of the Commission's agents, which covered 13,686 acres. The others are estimates based upon the Japanese-American Yearbook. Those for Idaho were secured from the different localities in which Japanese are farming, but are incomplete in that they do not include the holdings of some tenant farmers growing sugar beets about Preston and Whitney, in the southern part of the State near the Utah boundary. Nor are the Oregon figures complete, for they do not include several tracts of leased land in localities not visited by an agent of the Commission. The figures for Utah were collected by agents of the Commission, but do not include three, or possibly more than three, farms, the acreage of which could not be ascertained. The figures for Texas were returned by an agent who visited practically all of the 25 farms in the course of his investigation in that State. Finally, the figures for Washington are estimates, based in large part, however, upon a census made by an agent of the Commission. This agent found 309 farms or holdings, with a total acreage of 6,344, in the vicinity of Seattle and Tacoma. Several farms were found or reported in other parts of the State, bringing the total number of holdings to approximately 325, with 7,000 acres as a probable total. In many cases the holdings of the Japanese are only subdivisions or parts of farms. The leases may cover only the fields which are devoted to the production of sugar beets, vegetables, or berries, or the orchards. Hence the figures relating to "holdings" should not be interpreted as equivalent to as many "farms as the term is ordinarily used. وو The next table, which is designed to show the kind of farming in which the Japanese are engaged, is still less accurate. The figures do, however, indicate in a general way the place occupied by the farmers of this race. Those for California and Colorado are taken from the Japanese-American Yearbook, to which reference has been made; the others are based upon reports made by agents of the Commission. TABLE 33.-Kinds of farming in which the Japanese are engaged. In Colorado, Utah, and Idaho the Japanese are chiefly growers of sugar beets. These they rotate to some extent with other crops, while in recent years they have engaged extensively in growing potatoes and, less extensively, other vegetables. In Colorado in 1909 the Japanese numbered 158 in a total of 5,298 farmers growing sugar beets under contract with the beet-sugar companies. In Utah they leased something less than one-fifth of the acreage devoted to beet growing. In Idaho in 1909 they leased 4,922 acres for growing sugar beets, which was almost one-fourth of the acreage devoted to the production of that crop. In several localities in these States the Japanese are the chief truck gardeners. In no case do they have effective control of the beets grown in these States, and the localities in which they produce most of the vegetables, though increasing in number, are still few. In Washington and Oregon the farmers of this race are primarily growers of potatoes, vegetables, and berries, though a few have orchards or poultry yards or dairies. They practically control the acreage devoted to berry growing about Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland and are competing with the growers of other races, but chiefly the Italian, in the vegetable markets of these places. Thirteen of the Texas farms are devoted primarily to growing rice, two are citrus fruit orchards, two are large nurseries, while the remaining eight are truck gardens. The Japanese farmers of California also are engaged chiefly in intensive farming, which requires much hand labor. Seventy-four were reported among a total of 834 farmers contracting to deliver beets to sugar factories in 6 different localities of the State. They grow by far the larger part of the strawberries, the more important centers of production being Los Angeles County, Florin, Watsonville, and Alviso and Agnews, near San Jose. They grow the larger part of the truck for the markets of Sacramento and Los Angeles, sharing the former chiefly with Chinese and Italians and the latter with Chinese and white men of various races. They grow a large part of the celery in southern California, where all of it was formerly grown by white farmers employing Chinese and Japanese laborers. They also grow much of the deciduous fruit, potatoes, asparagus, beans, and other vegetables. In some of the localities devoted chiefly to growing deciduous fruit, as about Vacaville, Winters, and in the Newcastle district," the farmers of this race control by lease or purchase the majority of the orchards. In the Santa Clara Valleyanother important center of the industry-on the other hand, they control as tenants only a few of the orchards. In several reclamation districts on the Sacramento River, where the land is devoted largely to growing fruit and vegetables, the Japanese in 1909 leased 17,597 of a total of 64,056 acres. Most of the remaining acreage is leased by Chinese, Italians, and Portuguese. On a few islands on the lower San Joaquin they leased 8,592, or 21.4 per cent, of the 40,082. Here the Italians and Chinese are tenants of much of the land, while Americans lease extensively for the production of barley, which is used in the rotation of crops. Japanese are also conspicuous as tenants of vineyards and hopyards in a few communities, as on the American River above Sacramento, and as nurserymen in various parts of the State. Few have engaged in general agriculture. |