While never a majority of the farm labor workforce in California, Chinese immigrants, for a time, predominated in several important crops and provided the bulk of workers in some counties. Growers praised them for their sober and industrious habits, much as Charles Crocker had for their work on the Central Pacific Railroad, and for doing work that white men preferred not to at wages whites refused to accept. Between 1860 and 1890 Chinese farmworkers assisted in the beginning of many specialty crops, enabling important sectors of California agriculture to get started. They also contributed the hard labor for numerous heavy rural construction projects, and became famous for their tolerable cooking in an occupation better known for its hazard to palate and health alike.

In Sonoma one hundred Chinese were working for pioneering winemaker Agoston Haraszthy as early as 1857, and their role in the development of that county’s wine industry cannot be overestimated. They cleared the land and put hundreds of thousands of grape vines into the ground for their employer. They pruned the plants, picked the grapes, dug wine cellars, constructed press houses, and worked the vats. Haraszthy kept careful notes on their speed at these tasks, and their work rates and wages became the industry standards. Hired by other wine grape growers in the area as well, by 1869 the Chinese had planted most of the area’s 3.2 million vines, in the process helping Sonoma to rival Los Angeles as the state’s premier wine growing center.