NOTICES REI,ATING TO AGRICUI^TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL IIQ 



nearly i, 000,000 acres ; one railroad owns 500,000 acres ; in Kern county 

 1,000,000 acres — or more than half all the land in private ownership — 

 are owned by four companies. The evils of such ownership are every 

 year becoming more apparent. At one end of the social scale there are a 

 few rich men who as a rule do not live on their estates, at the other a shif- 

 ting body of farm labourers or a farm tenantr}-, made up largely of aliens 

 and taking small interest in the progress of the communit3^ The interests 

 of political stability, of agriculture and of society require that this inheri- 

 tance from a Mexican land system and from former land laws of the United 

 vStates be abolished. 



In California settlers have to pay for farms in periods of from three to 

 ten years, while in other countries periods of from thirty to seventy-five 

 years have been found necessary. Consequently a settler without a large 

 cash capital or some income from another source has not been able to buy 

 a farm. The Commissioners did not discover a single instance of a settler 

 who brought with him only the limited capital required by State systems 

 in other countries and was able to pay for his land within the time agreed 

 upon in his contract. 



The experience of practical^ every colonization company, no matter 

 how successful, has been that it would have been better for both the set- 

 tler and the company if the original enterprise had been organized on a fi- 

 nancial basis giving the settler more money for improvements and a longer 

 time in which to pay for his farm. 



Dealers in real estate flocked from the overdone and less profitable 

 fields of the Middle West, not to develop agriculture in California but to 

 exploit it. It was the paradise of the boomer because it stands alone as 

 regards rural advantages and attractions : in no other State can such a 

 wide range of products or so many highly priced products be grown ; no 

 other State affords the farmer or fruit grower an equal opportunity to exer- 

 cise intelligence and scientific knowledge in planning his work. 



But more is necessary for good results than a subdivision of farms and 

 an inflation of land prices. Not every man is suited to becoming an orange 

 grower or has the habits of careful thoroughness needed in intensive agricul- 

 ture of any kind. To create communities like P.edlands in th^ south or the 

 Santa Clara Valley in the north workers of superior intelligence are requir- 

 ed. If they be not already trained they must be willing to undergo ap- 

 prenticeship in a most exacting form of agriculture which makes far great- 

 er demands on knowledge and skill than do the fertile corn and wheat 

 growing States of the Middle West. 



The best results in California can only be secured when colonization 

 is carried out in accordance with carefully thought out plans, aimed at the 

 creation of a definite form of agriculture or horticulture. This fact was 

 not recognized b}' the speculative colonizing agent, who gave no more 

 thought to the welfare of the community or the ultimate results of his en- 

 terprise than he would have done had he been buying or selling grain or 

 coal. Land was to him merchandise to be bought at the cheapest price 

 and sold for as much money as the settler could be induced to pay. 



