State Agricultural Society. 209 



relative to the rates of wages and the hours of labor, or what many 

 are pleased to ' call the antagonism between labor and capital. There 

 seems to be but one way out of this difficulty, and that is through 

 individual enterprise, where that is practicable, and where it is not, the 

 combination of the capital of the operators in cooperative organizations. 

 It would seem that these associations should give to operatives exactly 

 what they earn, and leave them free, without let or hindrance, to fix the 

 hours of toil to suit their own convenience and interests. As nothing 

 seems to stand in the way of their formation, it is surprising they have not 

 been more generally resorted to. One thing is certain, it is every man's 

 duty to himself, to his family, and to society, to be as independent as 

 possible of all others in the control of his labor, and in reaping all the 

 fruits therefrom. 



Who can contemplate a life less interesting, more perfectly bereft of 

 every ambitious hope of improved condition, than one spent as a journey- 

 man mechanic, or as an operative in a manufacturing establishment? In 

 such a life the ordinary stimulus which impels men to action is wanting, 

 and it is not sui'prising, therefore, that men become restless and com- 

 plaining. Every man who employs himself will find that he is his own 

 best paymaster, and with himself he will never have any disputes about 

 rates of pay or hours of labor, nor will he be ordered by his society to 

 strike, and as a consequence see his family starve, while he remains 

 unemployed. If men cannot control their own labor in our cities, how 

 much better than idleness, or at least the uncertainty of employment, 

 would be a farm in the country. Here at least all can place themselves 

 above want, if they will depend upon their own labor and not make 

 farming a hazardous speculation. But many will say there is no land 

 within their reach. Is this true? The Secretary of the Interior esti- 

 mates the amount of land adapted to agricultural purposes in this State 

 to be about sixty-five million acres, and fifteen million in addition as 

 suitable for grazing only. In eighteen hundred and sixty-five there was 

 of this amount under fence four million fifty-five thousand six hundred 

 and ninety acres, and under cultivation but one million five hundred and 

 four thousand six hundred and eighty acres. 



Probably there is not now more than six million acres under fence, 

 and two million five hundred thousand under cultivation. These esti- 

 mates, which are believed to be large, would show that but ten per cent 

 of our agricultural land is yet under fence, and less than four per cent 

 under cultivation. 



This shows that there is not only room for all our people who desire 

 to cultivate the soil, but for more than twenty times the number we 

 now have. At first thought we are staggered by such a calculation as 

 this; but if we take a ride from Yolo County to the north line of the 

 State, and from the Stanislaus to the Colorado Eiver, or, if we spread 

 before us the map of California, and pencil off that portion of the State 

 which is now actually occupied by the agriculturist, we shall see the 

 estimate is a true one, and that the amount of land actually cultivated 

 contrasts with the area of the State as an ordinary garden does to a 

 farm. Those who are interested in the future of the State should use 

 all their influence to have this vast unoccupied domain held- for those 

 who are to cultivate it. It is believed by men of enlarged views that 

 the true policy of the Federal Government is to withdraw from sale all 

 its public lands, and hold them as the free heritage of the poor under 



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