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UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAIv ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



The results of the commission's investigations have been arranged in 

 a report, published in 1916, which we will analyse in detail (i). 



§ I. AGRICULTURAI, conditions in CALIFORNIA. 



California has an immense area of fertile and unpeopled land. Onl^^ 

 eleven million out of the twenty-eight million acres of farm land are being 

 cultivated. Nevertheless comparatively few settlers are immigrating 

 and many who arrived in recent years have gone away. Costly advertis- 

 ing and still more costly personal solicitacions have failed to attract colonists. 

 The principal causes for this arrested development seem to be the high pri- 

 ces of land, the high rates of interest, and the short terms which coloniza- 

 tion contracts allow for payment. Moreover great properties, owned by 

 nonresidents, ought to be subdivided and cultivated by residents. 310 

 landed proprietors own more than four million acres of land suited to in- 

 tensive cultivation and capable of supporting a dense population. 



The enquiry obtained the following da^a as to the financial condition 

 of settlers : 



Numbei of settlers interviewed 991 ; average area of a farm 37 acres ; 

 average price paid for unimproved land $ 160 (minimum $ 56 and maximum 

 $ 512) ; average time allowed for payment 5.8 years ; average capital of set- 

 tler $ 4,814 ; average cost of improvements $ 2,367 (minimum $ 850 and 

 maximum $ 6,615) ; number of colonists still debtors 719 ; average amount 

 of indebtedness $ 2,931 ; average rate of interest 8 per cent, when money 

 is furnished by a bank or privately, 6.9 per cent, when it is furnished by 

 contract. 



In the whole of California the rate of interest on deferred payments 

 for land and money borrowed to pay for land or its improvement or stocking 

 varies from 6 to 10 per. cent., and the time allowed for repayment froip three 

 to eight years. 



The following table shows the average price per acre in 1916 of 

 farm land in the United States. 



(i) In our issue for April 1917 we published a brief notice of this report. 



