ABSTRACT
The ride up the branch! The rails followed the river north and the irrigated river water made the valley a green band winding through brown hills. The rails brought empty refrigerator cars in to carry the apples south that we would pick, and empty boxcars carried the workers to pick them. Short weeks later the reefers would carry the crop away, and somewhere in the nooks and crannies of the train the tramps would ride out as well. It all took place so easily, so neatly. The crops matured; the workers circulated in and circulated out with the fruit, and most of the money generated in the process never left the county.
