SUCCESS ON SMALL TRACTS 



MANY a man desires to go into farming on a small scale who has but 

 little capital. He cannot make the outlay at the start. Such a 

 man need not be deterred from entering upon the business in Cali- 

 fornia, for there are numerous instances where men have suc- 

 ceeded on much smaller tracts than twenty acres, and with a very 

 scant backing indeed. In the Sacramento Valley Samuel Cleek and his 

 wife have made a living from a one-acre patch of ground, since 1877. 

 When Cleek went there all the country was given over to the raising of 

 wheat. Cleek had meager capital. He obtained an acre in a corner of a 

 big wheat-field, near a newly plotted townsite. He built a little cabin of one 

 room and put up a windmill, then started to raise vegetables and poultry. 

 He had great faith in the future development of the country, and as time 

 went by he planted berries and fruits in many varieties. 



Cleek cultivated his one acre to its fullest extent on the intensified and 

 diversified plan. Every foot on the acre farm was utilized, as will be seen 

 by the following inventory of what the place contains: Cottage and 

 porches, 30 by 30 feet; barn and corral space, including chicken-houses, 

 75 by 75 feet; two windmill towers, 16 by 16 feet each; garden, 46 by 94 

 feet; blackberries, 16 by 90 feet; strawberries, 60 by 90 feet; citrus nursery, 

 90 by 98 feet (in this there are usually 400 budded orange trees); a row of 

 dewberries along the fence, 100 by 2 feet; 4 apricot-trees, 2 oak-trees, 3 

 peach-trees, 6 fig-trees, 10 locust-trees, 7 eucalyptus-trees, 30 assorted 

 roses, 20 assorted geraniums, 12 lemon-trees, seven years old; a lime tree 

 from which were sold within one year 160 dozen limes, 4 bearing bread- 

 fruit trees, 8 bearing orange-trees, 5 pomegranate-trees, 6 beds of violets 

 about 65^ feet each, 1 patch bamboo, bed callas, 4 prune-trees, 6 cypress- 

 trees, 16 stands of bees, 4 huge grapevines, 1 bed sage, 1 seed bed, besides 

 honeysuckles and many rare shrubs. On his one acre Cleek and his wife 

 lived and laid by some money. 



When it is remembered that land which is worth from $1,000 to $2,000 

 an acre is being cultivated and gives good interest on that amount of 

 money. It will be seen that small acreages can be utilized to great advan- 

 tage if properly cared for. 



But it must be remembered that more depends upon the man than 

 upon the ground. California is not a lazy man's country. The instances 

 of good results enumerated above would not have been possible had not 

 the man worked intelligently, persistently, and to the best advantage all 

 the time. There are frequent instances in California where a man has been 

 fortunate enough to acquire a piece of ground with improvements at a cost 

 which made it a bargain because the original owner of the place failed in 

 the requisites which could have made the place a success. The new 

 owner has started with a good place, and has made a living and laid by a 

 good sum each year on the same place where the other man ran into debt. 

 An instance of this sort recently occurred in one of the foothill valleys. A 

 man purchased forty acres of land lying partly on the hill and partly on bot- 

 tom. A stream ran through the bottom land, and on the hill were two fine 

 springs. He built a house of nine rooms at the foot of the hill, piped and 

 plumbed, with water from one of the springs. The outbuildings were good 

 and substantial, and the place was put in good order, the improvements 

 alone costing $2,500. But the owner, while a good man as men generally 

 run, wanted to live without working very hard, and he put his bottom land 

 in five acres of alfalfa and sixteen acres of rye grass for pasture. His hill 

 land was left in timber with the exception of about one acre in orchard and 

 vineyard of table-grapes. He kept two cows, a few chickens and turkeys, 

 half a dozen Angora goats, and sat down to wait for a living income to grow. 

 It did not grow to any appreciable extent, and debt began to accumulate. 



The place changed hands, the new owner paying $3,500 cash for it. He 

 expended $1,000 more in changing conditions, and put $500 in cows and 



