162 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



land, in all desirable portions of the State, which but two years ago 

 could have been bought of the Government or the State for from one 

 dollar to one dollar and a quarter per acre, cannot now be bought for less 

 than from ten to fifteen dollars per acre. What is the result ? Immi- 

 gration to the State is checked, the settlement and improvement of our 

 vacant lands is slow and uncertain, and consequently, the prosperity of 

 the State is held in abeyance. 



The question here arises, can this evil be abated or remedied ? It is 

 true that individuals and corporations have the right to invest their 

 means in lands, and to hold them for their price, and the Government 

 has no right directly to interfere. 



Yet we believe the State can of right and ought, in justice to herself 

 and to small landholders who live upon and cultivate their lands, reach, 

 and to a great extent remedy the evil. 



If you or [ own and cultivate one. hundred and sixty acres of land, 

 which we hold worth fifty dollars per acre — when the Assessor comes 

 around he values that land at fifty dollars per acre, and we have to pay 

 the taxes upon that valuation. Not so with these large land holders. 

 They generally manage to have their lands valued at what they cost 

 them, and not what they sell them at. This is wrong, and unjust to 

 other taxpa}*ers, and a fraud upon the treasury of the State, and it lies 

 in the power of the Legislature to remedy the evil — and the remedy 

 should be applied. 



The prosperity, certain and lasting, of our agriculture, lies in the 

 variety of productions equal to the variety of our capacity and the de- 

 mand upon us. 



Let our lands be divided up into small farms, and we insure that 

 variety of production, and consequently, that certain and permanent 

 prosperity. 



The production of wheat, though remunerative for the last few years, 

 is liable to be followed to that extent that it may become an injury to 

 the State. The continued cultivation of wheat upon lands, from year to 

 year, 1 exhausts the soil, and in the end impoverishes the producer. 

 Again, if the farmers of the State depend upon the wheat crop too 

 exclusively, a failure of that crop for a few successive seasons bankrupts 

 the farming interest and stagnates the entire business of the State. We 

 have had experience in this respect, and that experience ought to teach 

 us a lesson for the future. 



Experiments in the production of new articles of agricultural industry, 

 in different portions of the State, show conclusively what might be 

 added to our general prosperity if the production of these articles should 

 become general. Thousands of dollars per acre are being realized 

 annuallyby a few gentlemen in Los Angeles County, from orange and 

 lemon orchards only seven or eight years of age ; and yet the number of 

 oranges they produce is a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the 

 number consumed in this State. Experiments in other portions of the 

 State show conclusively that these fruits can be raised in other localities 

 as successfully and in as great perfection as in Los Angeles. Evidences 

 of this fact have been exhibited at the State fair for years past, 

 from Butte and Sacramento Counties; and within a stone's throw from 

 where we now stand, the luscious fruit, in fuW perfection, is annually 

 .plucked from the trees. Why, then, should not California not only sup- 

 ply her own demand for these fruits, but ship to her sister States what 

 they may need? Experiments in shipping certain varieties of grapes 

 and other fruits to the Atlantic States, on the railroad, are proving not 



