<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Let me ask you about your parents' farm. How many acres did your parents usually farm?

DM: Usually in Imperial Valley they were divided into three quarter miles square, which would consist of forty acres.

MN: Did they own the land?

DM: No, they couldn't. Immigrants couldn't purchase property in those days, so he would lease the land for three years at a time.

MN: So did you have to move every three years?

DM: Usually the land would be not nourishable to produce crops, so we generally moved every three years to another location.

MN: Every time you moved, what happened to your home?

DM: Our houses were, they were wooden houses about twelve by fourteen. They were made small so they could be lifted on the back of a truck to carry to a different location. So they were just simple houses.

MN: So you had a portable home?

DM: Yeah. I guess you'd call it portable.

MN: How old were you when you started to work on the farm?

DM: I can remember working on the farm ever since I can lift a shovel in a hole, which would probably be around five or six years old.

MN: So at that age, what are you doing on the farm? You're so young.

DM: Chop weeds.

MN: And then you're going to school, so when did you help on the farm?

DM: After I came home from school.

MN: How old were you when you started to learn how to work with the mules?

DM: Oh, I ran the team of mule, I can remember, around ten or eleven years old.

MN: What did you do with the mules?

DM: Mules would probably be attached to a plow or a cultivator.

MN: So did you have to be pretty strong to work with the mules?

DM: No. You had harnesses from the mule which you would hold to direct them in what direction you want them to go. I was in the back handling the equipment.

MN: How do you know the mules are going in a straight line?

DM: They generally do. Goes, our work was usually up and down the furrows. Furrows were straight ditches, about three or four feet apart, up and down the field.

MN: What did you grow on your farm?

DM: At first, my dad was into lettuce and melons. They were mainly shipped back east on the freight cars, so they had to be ice packed, and it took about a week for the produce to appear in the market back east. So they were picked, you might say, not prematurely, but they were picked before they were ripe.

MN: Now when you say melons, are you talking about watermelons?

DM: Watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, and they had a fruit called honeymelons, which was a little smaller than the honeydew.

MN: Where did you purchase the seeds from?

DM: Mainly from the Kitazawa seed company.

MN: That's from Oakland, huh? Are they from Oakland?

DM: I don't know where they were headquartered. I think in L.A.

MN: Oh, L.A.?

DM: That was the, I think Mr. Hatchimonji handled the Kitazawa seeds.

MN: So Mr. Hatchimonji sold it at his seed company?

DM: Yeah.

MN: Because that was going way back, I think.

DM: Way back.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.