140 ‘WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

As a grower and shipper of melons and diversified vegetable crops,
[ have been for 20 years active in building up this region and I am
familiar with the unskilled labor needs of its agriculturists.
The Crarrman. How are you getting along with it?
Mr. Brair. Very nicely.
The CratrmMaN. What is the population down there?
Mr. Brair. Between fifty-five and sixty thousand.
The Cuairman. In the whole Imperial Valley?
Mr. Brag. Yes, sir.
The Cuatrman. How long is that valley?
Mr. Brae. Well, it is hard to say.
The CrarrMaN. Approximately?
Mr. Brair, It is hard to say as the upper end of the valley is called
Coachella Valley.
The CuareMAN. I mean the irrigated part.
Mr. Brair. That is about 50 miles long and 40 miles wide.
The CralrmMaN. Proceed.
Mr. Brame. Water secured from the Colorado River irrigates
605,000 acres of the valley. The assessed land values total $49,-000,000,
 and our district totals $22,000,000. Our growers own and
operate $2,500,000 worth of mechanical equipment to keep 4,00
miles of expensive ditches free from silt.
For this upkeep alone, 800 common laborers are needed the year
around. Since last August our ditch crews have been so diminished,
due to inadequate supply of Mexican labor, that our investment in
this irrigation project, the largest in the world owned by farmers
themselves, is now at stake, to say nothing of the danger of deterioration
 in our lands for lack of steady and regularized flow of water.
Something of the wealth produced is indicated by the fact that
there is more than a carload of agricultural commodities produced
and shipped out of the valley for every man, woman, and child of
every nationality living in the valley.
For more than 20 years vegetable growers of this valley have spent
time and money to train Mexicans to grow our crops. They were
found, after trial of other races, to be the only ones who would learn
our ways and return to this region year after year. They came to
know us as employers and we come to know and to like them. The
same Mexicans come back to the same grower year after year.
It is their custom when our season ends in July to travel northward
to the grape, fruit, and vegetable and cotton region of the San Joaquin
Valley near Fresno, where they could be steadily employed if they
chose until the following December or J anuary.
The CrarrmaN. You let them go away part of the time?
Mr. Brag. Yes, sir; well, they go to the northern part of the State
and then come back—that is, a large majority of them.
Ths CHARMAN. Staying in the United States more and more each
year? }
Mr. Brag. These particular ones we employ, yes, sir; and some of
them go back to Mexico.
The CrairmaN. You are the first man among quite a number of
witnesses who would admit that they stay here part of the time in
the United States. The general statement was that they stayed here
a couple of months and then went back.