The Valley of the Moon

time for San Juan. Puddles were standing in the road, but the sun shone from a blue sky, and everywhere, on the ground, was a

ck. "He wouldn't listen at first. Said he'd put me to drivin' in a few da

at did

' when he tried to argue I told 'm my wife was w

are you,

to like that plowin'. I'll never be scairt to ask for a job at it again. I've go

the side of the road at the sound of an automobile behind them. But the ma

quired of Billy, with a quic

in' that far," Billy a

you several days on shank's mare with those loads. Climb in.

lanced

fine in front.-This is my wi

usband away from me," Benson accused good h

ibility and became absorbed

than you'd plowed before you came to me," Benson, wit

ut once before," Billy confessed. "

dollar

artist to put up for it,"

aughed h

isn't one man in ten I could hire off the county road that could do as well as you were doing on the third day. But your big asset is that

tle with horse

rip. I could see it the moment he started. There wasn't any doubt in his mind. There wasn't any doubt in the horses. They got the feel of him. They just knew the thing was going to be done and that it was up to them to do it. They didn't have any fear, but just the same they knew the boss was in the seat. When he took hold of those lines, he took hold of the horses. He gr

at Saxon to see if she had followed him. What he saw in her

ong here behind a pair of fast-steppers. But I'd lose time on them, and, worse than that, I'd be too anxious about th

nowledge she had picked up enabled her to talk to advantage, and when Benson talked she was amazed that she could understand so much. In resp

me twenty miles, and realized that it was a longer stretch than they had planned to walk tha

n as your husband was doing o

said you said he must b

r blankets in search of land. And, before I forget it, I want to tell you one thing." He turned to Billy. "I am just telling your wife that there's

of Agriculture at the University of California-a branch of learning she had

to take up for one reason or another. If it's good land down there where you

show you what can be done with the soil-and not by cow-college graduates but by uneducated foreigners that the high

the machine a few minutes w

we'll be fresh for a few miles on our own. Just the same, when we get settled a

here in a hurry," Saxon agreed. "Of

in the country. I was at first, but I didn't tell you. Just the same I was dead leery when we pulled out on the San Leandro pike.

ven't said it right. Any GOOD man can get work in the c

in it for their he

lly, take all the working tramps we've met on the road already. There wasn't one to compare with yo

ty measly bunch," Bil

Dalmatia. We're being squeezed out. We Yankees thought we were smart. Well, the Dalmatians came along and showed they were smarter. They were miserable immigrants-poorer than Job's turkey. First, they worked at day's labor in the fruit harvest. Next they began, in a small way,

made something like two and three thousand per cent. profits. And now they're satisfied to ma

all gone already. It's intensive cultivation." She liked that phrase. "It isn'

rses. Each tree is just as much an individual to them as a horse is to me. They know each tree, its whole history, everything that ever happened to it, its every idiosyncrasy. They have their fingers on its pulse. They can tell if it's feeling as well to-day as it felt yesterday. And if it isn't, they know why and proceed to remedy matters for it. They can look at a tree i

Make a market. That's their way, while our kind let the crops rot knee-deep under the trees. Look at Peter Mengol. Every year he goes to England, and he takes a hundred ca

with all the mone

ro Valley out, of course,

?" she qu

oked at h

mericans will spend the money and by the second generation start rotting in

rotted, she thought; as Bert and all the rest h

ter. We're teaching it in all our agricultural colleges, experiment stations, and demonstration trains. But the people won't take hold, and the immigrant, who has learned in a hard school, beats them out. W

d good masonry, six feet high, a level terrace six feet wide; up and up, walls and terraces, the same thing all the way, straight into the air, walls upon walls, terraces upon terraces, until I've se

handful, and carried it up the mountains on their backs and built farms-BUILT them, MADE them, on the naked rock. Why, in France, I've seen hill peasants mining their stream-beds for soil as our fa

tricken tones. "Our folks never d

ook at those hillsides! That's New Dalmatia. Look at it! An ap

s the flat-lands and up the low rolling hills, the industry of

iginals. Entered through Castle Garden and became a dish-washer. When he laid eyes on this valley he knew it was his Klondike. To-day he leases seven hundred acres and owns a hundred and thirty of his own-the finest orchard in the valley, and he packs from forty to fifty thousand boxes of export apples from it every year. And he won't let a soul but

in' in the Valley?" Billy a

shook h

isn't the Americans who do the saving. There are fifty-seven apple-evaporating furnaces, to say nothing of the apple canneries an

untry," Billy reflected. "Fought fo

uit picking at day's wages. They give better satisfaction than the American fruit-pickers, too, and the Yankee grower is glad to get them. Next, as they get stronger, they form in Japanese unions and proceed to run the American labor out. Still the fruit-growers are satisfied. The next step is when the Japs won't pick. The American labor is gone. The fruit-grower is helpless. The crop perishes. Then in step the Jap labor bosses

on, what is left f

and go to the cities. Some become larger capitalists; some go into the professions; the rest spend the mone

ng Benson reminded Billy of the steady job

irst," Billy answered. "Don't know what we'll settle

t's

win' at three thous

e backs, trudged along a hundred yar

ryin' it up a hill in a basket. The United States is big yet. I don't care what Benson or any of 'em says, the

he doesn't know right now as much about farming conditions as we do. And I'll tell you another thing.

n' what everybody tel

here is worth three thousand an acre, why is it that government land, if it's

ile, but could come to no conclusion. At

t till we see it

agreed. "We'll wa