199 



AGRICULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



The biennial report of the Califoruia State Agricultural Society for 

 1870-71 has been received. A digest of its more important points may- 

 be of interest. According to estimates based on the returns of the 

 county assessors, the value of the agricultural products of California for 

 1870, not including fruits, amounted, in round numbers, to $60,000,000, 

 obtained from 2,596,612 acres under cultivation, averaging $23.10 per 

 acre. 



It is believed that in 1871, in consequence of the extreme drought, the 

 j>roduct was somewhat smaller than in 1870, although the enhancement 

 of prices went far toward compensating producers for deficiency in 

 quantity. The wool-growers enjoyed especial prosperity, the yield of 

 1871 being about 25,000,000 pounds, returning 27^- cents per pound, 

 against 19,472,060 pounds in 1870, returning 19 cents ; showing an in- 

 crease of over 82 -pev cent, in the value of the clip. 



Of 80,000,000 acres of tillable land in Califoruia, less than 3,000,000 

 are under cultivation, the area thus utilized in 1870 being, by the asses- 

 sor's returns, 2,596,612 acres. Of the total population of the State — 

 namely, 560,223 — nearly oue-half, or 249,738, are residents of twenty-four 

 of the larger cities and towns, leaving 310,485 for residents of the smaller 

 towns, occupants of farms, &c. Census statements show 23,375 farms 

 under cultivation in 1870, the products of which, not including fruit, 

 averaged in value $2,567. This exhibit shows a small rural population 

 and a vast amount of fertile land yet unoccupied for cultivation, and 

 suggests the inquiry whether the prosperity of a region peculiarly rich 

 in natural resources is not impeded by' land monopolies. 



Statistics collected by the State board of equalization show that in 

 eleven counties 5,465,286 acres (more than double the whole amount cul- 

 tivated in the State in 1870) are in the hands of one hundred owners, 

 either individuals or companies, averaging nearly 54,653 acres to each 

 proprietor. These lands, which, on an average, cost their owners $1 to 

 $1.25 per acre, are chiefly held for sale in lots to suit purchasers, at 

 prices ranging from $2 to $8 per acre. They are now assessed at an 

 average value of $2 per acre , but were they divided into farms, and oc- 

 cupied as such, their average value would be increased at least $10 per 

 acre, and this alone would add $54,652,860 to the taxable wealth of the 

 State. Divided into farms averaging 160 acres, occupied by families 

 averaging five persons, and yielding products of the same average value 

 with those under cultivation in 1870, the result would be an addition of 

 170,790 to the rural population of the State, and of $126,000,000 to the 

 value of its farm products. 



This ownership by companies of large tracts held for sale at an ad- 

 vance on Government prices exists to some extent in all the counties in 

 the State. The Central Pacific Eailroad also holds within the State in 

 the same way 3,000,000 acres. This transfer of vast tracts of unim- 

 proved land from the Government into the hands of private owners, who 

 hold it for purposes of speculation, operates as a serious check upon im- 

 migration and upon the development of the State's resources. 



Irrigation, floods, and swamp-lands. — An exj)erience of twenty years, 

 in which many millions of money and a large amount of property have 

 been sacrificed by the failure of isolated and oftentimes conflicting at- 

 tempts to prevent the ravages of drought and of flood, and to reclaim 

 swamp lands, has proved the necessity of adopting, by State legislation. 



