INTERIOR COLONIZATION IN CALIFORNIA 65 



2) After they have made the initial payment they should be required 

 to pay nothing further on principal for the first two years, but the selling 

 contract should stipulate the character of the improvements they must 

 make ; 



3) The payment for land should be amorti^ed ; and the amount of 

 annual or semiannual payments equal throughout the period of payment. 



It also seems desirable that the State should establish one or more 

 offices in which information as to approved colonizing enterprises could 

 be obtained. California might, like West Virginia, distribute printed lists 

 of land held by approved enterprises, stating the conditions of settlement 

 and what crops might be grown on them. 



The commission believed that over a considerable part of America 

 the different States will soon have made colonization a public matter. In 

 the east this will be done to lessen tenant farming and improve agricultural 

 practices, in the west to settle unoccupied and uncultivated land rapid- 

 ly. The tendency towards the adoption of this policy in the west is shown 

 by the decision of the United States Reclamation »Service to level and im- 

 prove farms before offering them for settlement ; by the introduction of 

 and hearings on the Grosser Bill which, if enacted, will go far towards financ- 

 ing settlers on public lands ; and by the report of the Co-operative lyand 

 Settlement Board in Wyoming, which has recommended that the federal 

 government build irrigation works, and the State subdivide the land, se- 

 lect settlers, and finance their necessary improvements. It is understood 

 that legislation to carry these recommendations into effect is being framed. 



The immense area of land in the large estates of California would make 

 progress too slow if it depended entirely on action by the State ; but the 

 State can do much to promote the adoption of right policies by showing on 

 a model colony the advantages of considering real agricultural development 

 rather than local or immediate benefits. It is suggested that for this an 

 area of about 10,000 acres be taken, from which there would have to be de- 

 ducted approximately 300 acres for roads, canals, schoolhouses and recrea- 

 tion grounds, and 100 acres for farms labourers' allotments and a few small 

 orchards and gardens. There would remain 9,600 acres or enough land to 

 provide about two hundred farms varying in size from 20 to 100 acres. If 

 these farms were all settled by alert, ambitious young men and women the 

 advantage to agriculture in California would be great. The value of the 

 demonstration would be increased if no settlers were admitted who were not 

 experienced and trained, between eighteen and thirty years old, posses- 

 sed of no farm land elsewhere in the State, and able themselves to reside on 

 and cultivate their farms. The land should be paid for in thirty-six years, 

 the initial cash payment being 5 per cent, while interest at 4 V2 per cent., 

 and amortized annual payments of i y, per cent of principal should begin at 

 the end of the fourth year, the settler paying for his land and having a 

 clear title while he does so by paying 4 14 per cent, on the cost in the first 

 four and 6 per cent, in the remaining thirty-two years. Each settler should 

 be required to have enough capital to pay in cash one fourth of the cost of 

 all improvements made by the State, the payment of the other three fourths 



