STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. L99 



not be canceled; upon ex parte reports of Moating Government agents, set- 

 tlers found themselves involved in costly investigations; State titles based 

 upon State patents to lands listed to the State by the United States were 

 ripped open by our over zealous Land Commissioner; the country was 

 tilled with spies and detectives, and agents of all kinds; the guilty and 

 innocent were made to pass under the same unbending rule; the newspa- 

 pers took up the cry, and without exercising their usual discriminating 

 judgment in matters of great public concern, fell into the general cry of 

 "Stop thief," "Down with the law;" and but for the wiser and more con- 

 servative judgment of the United States Senate, there would to-day exist 

 hut one way to obtain public land, and that way involving five years con- 

 tinuous residence, whether the land is timber, desert land, lava beds, or 

 agricultural. 



The present laws are surrounded with ample safeguards, and if not, let 

 them be made so; but don't let us acknowledge that honest officials can- 

 not be found to administer the law, or that honest men are not seeking 

 land. Any one familiar with land entries knows that the Register and 

 Receiver can in almost every case determine whether an entry is made in 

 good faith. It is within their power, under instructions, to make any inves- 

 tigation they wish before approving an entry, and this is an ample pre- 

 ventive in the great majority of cases. I do not believe there is one tenth 

 the frauds practiced in the Land Department there are in the Revenue 

 Department, or the Post Office Department, or the Purchasing and Con- 

 struction Bureaus of the War and Navy Departments, or in the Indian 

 Bureau; but we never hear of abolishing the laws relating to these branches 

 of service. 



There is just as much sense in starving the Indians because the con- 

 tractors overcharge in price and undermeasure in quantity; just as much 

 wisdom in abolishing revenue laws because of frauds and thefts, as there 

 is in the plan of ceasing the sale of public lands because some entrymen 

 swindle the Government. 



"What we want is a wider intelligence in our public land policy. We 

 have in this State large bodies of grazing lands — for example, the lava 

 slopes of the Sierras — where five acres are required to sustain one sheep 

 through the grass season. A man can no more make a valid homestead on 

 such lands than he can on the top of Mount Shasta. These lands would 

 be purchased at graduated prices, and would thus be subject to tax and 

 made of use to the State; they are now the grazing grounds of stockmen, 

 who pay nothing for their use. Millions of acres in this State are idle and 

 profitless, except to fortunate stockmen, and will be for a century, unless 

 some means of purchase are afforded. What we want is better adminis- 

 tration of the laws, not their repeal. The Land Department should learn 

 the difference between lands and their conditions in different localities. 

 This is a subject vital to the agricultural classes, and might be greatly 

 enlarged in the discussion. I mention it only to invite fui'ther and more 

 rational examination than I think has been given it. 



CLIMATE AS A FACTOR IN OUR PROGRESS. 



I have often wondered whether an address upon the advantages and 

 resources of California could be intelligently made without reference to the 

 hackneyed matter of climate. I thought I would try this time, but I find 

 I cannot do it. We are chaffed a good deal over this claim of ours, but as 

 it is unmistakably the great distinguishing advantage we possess over most 

 of the United States, why should we not dwell upon it. It is our climate 



