Il8 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



from 1913 to 1915 by 37 per cent, which makes the increase in the value 

 of the total wages of the stature labourers 9 per cent in 1914-1915 and 23 

 per cent, from 1913 to 1915. Compared therefore with the journeymen 

 or with industrial workers they were much better paid than in the pre- 

 vious year. 



UNITED STATEvS. 



LAND vSETTLEMENT IN CALIFORNIA. 



The progress of land settlement in California is revealed by a report 

 lately rendered by the ComiTiission on I,and Colonization and Rural Credits. 



CaHfornia has had no State land policy. The subdivision of land for 

 settlers, the character of the settlers, the kind of agriculture and the con- 

 ditions of purchase of land have all been left to unregulated private enter- 

 prise. There has been neither public control of the selection of coloni.sts, 

 to insure their being effective agents of rural development, nor public scru- 

 tiny of the soil and conditions of purchase, to render it certain that colonists 

 find an opportunity rather than a temptation. 



The State has an immense area of fertile and unpeopled land, only 

 11,000,000 acres out of the 28,000,000 acres of farm land being cultivated. 

 Yet comparatively^ few settlers are going to the country and many who 

 have arrived in recent years have left. Neither costly advertising nor 

 still more costly personal solicitation has served to attract colonists. Pro- 

 gress in the country has not kept pace with progress in the towns ; for in 

 the five years from 1910 to 1915 the gain in population of Californian cities 

 and towns was three times that of the countr3\ 



The principal causes of the arrested development seem to be the high 

 prices of land, the high rates of interest and the short terms for payment 

 given in colonization contracts. Under these contracts it is practically 

 impossible to earn the money required to pay for a farm in the time usually 

 given. Many also complain that opportunities have been so exaggerated 

 and the expenses of developing a farm so minimized, that settlers have been 

 induced to undertake what on trial has proved to be impossible. 



It is to the interest of the whole State that its fertile lands should be 

 cultivated and active colonization promoted. A large share of the meat 

 consumed and many other farm products are now bought abroad ; and in- 

 creased production would lessen the cost of living and keep at home money 

 now sent out of the country to pay for food. Moreover the great proper- 

 ties which are owned by non-residents and cultivated by tenants or by 

 nomadic and unsatisfactory hired labour ought to be subdivided and culti- 

 vated by residents. From statistics furnished by the tax commissioner 

 it appears that 310 landed proprietors own over 4,000,000 acres of land 

 suitable to intensive cultivation and capable of supporting a dense popu- 

 lation. This land would make 10,000 forty-acre farms. One firm owns 



