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The intending immigrant is not content with second-class land. He, 

 therefore, contemplates the purchase of the best quality, or the highest 

 figure used in this illustration, $150. Suppose he has at home 200 acres 

 which he can sell at $50 an acre, he will obtain $io,coo for his farm. He 

 realizes that at $150 an acre he can purchase in return for this, after pay- 

 ing his expenses to California, say 60 acres. He, therefore, feels to be 

 losing 140 acres by his change of residence, and there is a spirit of greed 

 in the ownership of the earth's surface which makes this proposition 

 instinctively distasteful. 



But the figures I have given here are not the maximum figures by any 

 means. In recent pamphlet publications relating to Southern California, 

 it is plainly stated that good orange land can be purchased for $250 an 

 acre. I read these statements, in the light of personal observation 

 among the people of the East, and, therefore, have a better realization of 

 their deterative force. The farmer in Iowa with 200 acres, saleable at 

 from $40 to $50 an acre, realizes that the proceeds of the sale of his farm 

 will purchase only one-fifth of its area in Southern California. He must, 

 therefore, content himself with giving up 200 acres and becoming the 

 proprietor of only 40 acres. This is analagous to the condition which 

 existed during the period of the' great premium on gold. While Cali- 

 fornia maintained a gold standard, the fortunes of Eastern people were 

 convertible into greenbacks, but if they chose to emigrate to California, 

 they must convert their greenbacks into gold. The farmer who could sell 

 his farm for $20,000 in greenbacks, after removal to California, must submit 

 to a reduction of from $10,000 to $12,000 on the face value of his money, 

 before he would have the only currency recognized by the commerce of 

 this State. However clear a case might have been made for the equivalent 

 value of the specie into which the currency had been converted, the senti- 

 mental considerations were against the change, and sentiment is not with- 

 out influence even in matters of commerce. The reverse of this operated to 

 send our population eastward. The man who could raise $10,000 in gold 

 coin in California, could convert it into $20,000 of the currency in use in 

 the Eastern States. Subsequent events proved that there was something 

 more than sentiment in this, because the purchasing power of currency 

 eventually arose to a par with gold. The gain became something more 

 than apparent it became actual. I declare herein unqualifiedly that the 

 analogy of this, as relates to land, is the chief difficulty in immigration to 

 the State of California. At the same time I declare that this reason is 

 not justified by the real facts of the situation. The lands held at $150 an 

 acre in California are cheaper than any lands within the boundaries of 

 any of the five great Western States at $50. It is, however, not an easy 

 task to justify this statement to the full comprehension of the intending 

 immigrant, or to secure complete acceptance of its truth; but it is clearly 

 within the knowledge of you, gentlemen of the Board of Agriculture, 

 that lands in California which have a ready market value of $150 an 

 acre, are capable of producing a far better rate of interest on that invest- 

 ment than any lands which may be obtained in the corn, wheat and pork 

 regions of the West at one-third that figure. 



