Smaller farms not able to afford the expense of hiring a number of temporary workers and providing them with food and shelter were often bought out by larger companies. Because the success or failure of a year depended on the harvest of every crop, it was easier for a larger company to survive through many seasons. An individually owned farm could go bankrupt if the season's crop did not meet expectations. Large companies could also afford to conduct widespread searches for temporary employees, sending fliers and messengers out to reach migrant workers at other farms and ranches. Small farms and ranches could not long compete with the financial power of Spreckels and other large companies, and so big business eventually came to control most of the agriculture in California.
Farm labor. Steinbeck himself describes the development of the labor system that came into being in California and provided a work force for the region's farms:
"Bindlestiffs," single, footloose Caucasian men, made up most of the labor force of the great wheat farms of the 1870s and 1880s. As California farming shifted its focus to fruits and vegetables, which required more labor during harvests and other intensive work periods, immigrants entered the farm labor market.
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