Japanese were engaged as farmworkers in southern California as early as 1900. mainly in the orange orchards and sugar beet fields. Of the 5.000 or so Japanese workers in 1905. 200 were fruit pickers. 1.000 were sugar beet workers. 800 in celery. 600 in strawberries. 600 in vegetables and 1.500 working on the railroad. Most Japanese immigrants came from farming families in Japan and knew something about intensive land cultivation. They also did not mind the extra care necessary for truck farming. which was a Chinese monopoly in the area until about 1907. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1883 decreased their number. and the Japanese eventually took over. Japanese truck farming began on a small scale in the Los Angeles suburbs of Tropico. Newmark (now Montebello).
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Chinese Exclusion immigrants