growing old and weak. The substitution was inevitable—a case
of the survival of the fittest.

Possessing all the required qualifications for the kind of labor
needed in the industries and having organized themselves so as
to meet the demand more effectively, they have attained their
present important position in agriculture of California. To show
that position substantially I can do no better than to quote the
“Report on the Japanese Question in California,” made by a
special commission appointed by the State in 1909, which reads
in part as follows:

“The investigation of Japanese in agriculture covered visits
to 4,102 farms scattered over thirty-six counties and growing
almost every crop common to the State of California. Of this
total number of farms visited, 1,733 were operated by Japanese
farmers as owners, cash lessees and share lessees. The remaining
2,369 farms were operated by white farmers, being equally dis-
tributed between those employing white help, exclusively, and
those employing mixed races, including Japanese. These 4,102
farms contained 697,236 acres and produced crops valued ap-
proximately at $28,000,000 annually. On these farms there were
employed during the past year an aggregate of 80,984 persons
of all races, 9,458 of whom were women, the length of employ-
ment varying from a few days to a year. On the 2,369 farms
operated by white farmers, employing a total of 63,198 persons,

_ 53.4 per cent of the labor employed was white, 36.4 per cent
_ Japanese, and 10.2 per cent various other races, including Chinese,
_ Mexicans, Hindus and Indians. On the 1,733 farms operated by

Japanese farmers employing 17,784 persons, 96 per cent of the

_ labor employed was Japanese, while 872, or 4 per cent, was
_ equally divided between male and female white; in other words,
_ on the basis of numbers employed, the Japanese furnished prac-

tically 50 per cent, or one-half, of the labor necessary to grow

_ and harvest the crop, valued at $28,000,000 produced on the

farms visited in this investigation.”

The farms on which Japanese were not employed were, as a
rule, much smaller than those on which they were employed, the

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