INTERIOR COI,OXIZATIOX IN CAIJFORNIA * 6l 



As regards the prices paid by colonists in California for their lands these 

 averaged according to their own statements $ 190.72 an acre, according to 

 the statements of the commercial bodies in the State $ 260.97 an acre. The 

 purchase price of miimproved land is, in fact, higher in California than in 

 other parts of the United States or in countries which have a State system of 

 land settlement. 



The comparison of the price of land and conditions of land purchase 

 in California with those obtaining elsewhere makes it seem wonderful that 

 settlers in California pay for farms in from three to ten years while in other 

 countries it takes them from thirty to seventy-five years to do so. The ex- 

 planation is that in California the settler who has not had a large capital 

 in cash or some outside income has not been able to buy a farm at all. 



The experience of practically every colonizing company, no matter 

 how successful, shows that it would have been better, both for the settlers 

 and for the conipan}^ if the original enterprise had been organized on a 

 basis which gave the settlers more money for improvements and a longer 

 time in which to pay for their farms. The colony of Los Molinos, for exam- 

 ple, is now a success. A majority of the settlers have overcome the obsta- 

 cles which at first threatened to overwhelm them. They bargained to pay a 

 liigh price for unimproved land in the short period of seven years. In 

 addition to pa^dng for the land they had to find money for improvements 

 and stock, of which the cost on small irrigated farms is very heavy. The 

 working expenses included taxes of about $3 an acre, water charges of 

 $2 an acre, and interest on land of which the amotmt varied from I75 to 

 $300 ari acre. A sum between S35 and $40 an acre was needed in order 

 to pay interest, principal and taxes ; and at the outset the land did not pro- 

 duce anytliing approaching this amount. Fortunately the company 

 which foiuidedthe colony had financial resources which enabled it to help the 

 settlers by spending §60,000 on the purchase of cows, and allowing the set- 

 tlers to pay for these by subsequently ceding half the money due to them for 

 cream. Each settler paid 8 per cent, on the loan made to him. The fol- 

 lowing figures show the extent to which the settlers were still indebted in 

 1 916. The 375 contracts then outstanding represented : 



$ 48,763 arrears of interest, 

 651,001 arrears of principal, 

 15,689 ledger account, and 

 13,446 unpaid balance on purchase of cows. 



In the past men paid for land in California in five 3^ears : but the task 

 of pa\dng for a farm out of its products has become much harder in the last 

 ten years. Thus when colonization began in Orland the price of land was 

 from Sio to S40 an acre. The same land, unimproved, now sells for from 

 $75 to $150 an acre and the water right costs an additional $ 40 an acre. 

 The lands of the Sacramento Valley Irrigation Companj^ were bought at an 

 average price of $37 an acre ; but the settlels on them whom the commis- 



