I once startled my American hosts by expressing the view that if heaven had any agriculture, it would look like California. Where else in the world do artichokes, avocados, walnuts and pistas, cherries and strawberries, peaches, plums, apricots and pears grow so profusely that trees are left unplucked. Despite a familiarity with mechanical things, I am startled to see a kind of monster with an immense hydraulic arm ploughing 8-10 furrows simultaneously, the driver sitting facing backwards looking at the plough rather than where he is going. There are enough strawberries here to feed the world, planted in rows a kilometre long to enable mechanical plucking. Mexicans too are everywhere, working 20 in a line at a rate that indicates they are on contract. Farm strawberries are being sold for the cost of their plucking.
