IS) THE .MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



they are subject to various interpretations. Figures, instead of giving 

 actual facts, generally give the near facts. One of the difficulties with 

 figures is that they deal largely with averages. It is impossible to 

 speak of the average California farmer. There is no such individual. 



The California farmer is like the California weather. We have not 

 known about him long enough to establish a normal. I once asked a 

 man the life of a Baldwin apple tree in Xew York State. He said 

 they did not know; they had not had Baldwin apple trees long enough 

 1o find out. The oldest trees they had were only about 100 year3 old. 

 There is no such thing in California as usual weather or the usual 

 farmer. It. he, or she. is always unusual. 



I am frequently asked whether the average Parmer does not do so 

 and so? I always reply that there are all kinds of farmers, just as 

 there are all kinds of preachers, doctors, storekeepers, manufacturers 

 and teachers. The farmer is not a race. lie is not even a class. Often 

 he has a brother who is a storekeeper, and a sister who has married a 

 lawyer. Some farmers are ignorant, others are among the best-read 

 men of our times. Some are lazy and shiftless, others are energetic and 

 thrifty. Some make money and spend it, others make money and 

 save it. Most farmers simply make a living, which is all thai most 

 other people do. A farmer generally makes wages and a small interest 

 on the capital invested. 



The farmer himself is to blame for the fact that his farm earns only 

 a small interest on the investment plus wages. If the farmer buys a 

 farm at $50 an acre, and the farm nets him wages and 6 per cent in 

 addition, he immediately asks $150 an acre for it, and would not sell it 

 for less than $100, after which he may complain that farming no 

 longer pays. The high price of land is an indication that farming 

 does pay. The lower the interest on railroad stocks or bonds, the 

 safer the investment is deemed to be. Government and municipal 

 bonds bear a lower rate of interest than do railroad and industrial 

 bonds, because of the greater certainty of payment of principal and 

 interest. Too high a capitalization may prevent land from being put 

 to a productive use. Some lands in California are not put to productive 

 use because they are capitalized at too high a figure. 



In 1910 the total number of persons in California over ten years 

 of age, engaged in gainful occupations, was 1,107,608. There were 

 225,070 persons engaged in agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry. 

 There were approximately 1,200 architects. 2. Odd dentists. 3,000 clergy- 

 men, 5,000 lawyers, 5,000 physicians, and 10,000 real estate agents. 

 In the United States as a whole, about one-third of the persons over 

 ten years of age engaged in gainful occupations were engaged in 

 agriculture, while in California only one-fifth of the workers were so 

 occupied. 



So far as the number of persons is concerned, therefore, farming is 

 not overdone in California. Relatively speaking it is not a crowded 

 occupation. If this paper were to have a thesis it would be that farming 

 in California is not overdone. The California farmer lias a future. 



One of the high school boys who went on the transcontinental trip 

 and who had never before been outside of his local community, was 

 asked, after he had seen New York with its 50 and 60-story buildings, 



