OBSTACLES TO DEVKLOPMENT. 31 



every instance their estates have passed out of their hands and out of the 

 possession of their descendants and are now owned by banks or capitahsts 

 in San Francisco, having been taken in paj'inent of loans made to meet the 

 losses incurred in growing small grain. Nor has the change of ownership 

 affected the general result. The present owners of these properties will not 

 rent them to tenants who can not give a satisfactory hank reference, experi- 

 ence having shown this to be a needed i)recaution. Although ecpiipped with 

 teams and machinery and understanding the California climate and Cali- 

 fornia agriculture, many of these tenants have at the end of the year walked 

 out of the valley, leaving both croji and equipment to pay the debts created 

 hx their failure. 



CALIFOBNIA AND UTAH COMPARED. 



In the 35 miles traversed tliere were only two schoolhouses. Attending 

 these schools was only one child whose parents owned the land on which 

 they lived. The other pupils were the children of foremen and tenants. 

 The county superintendent told me that at these two schools there were 

 only fifteen children. These conditions of alien landlordism, tenant 

 farming, iinoccnpied homes and scanty population, in a country so rich in 

 possibilities, show a vital economic defect in methods. The situation here 

 was in such striking contrast with what had been seen in traveling through 

 an irrigated valley in Utah the month before that the differeiice seems 

 worthy of statement. In a distance of 15 miles, along Cottonwood Creek, 

 Utah, there was not a farm of over 30 acres. The houses and barns on 

 these little farms indicated more comfort and thrift than those of the Sacra- 

 mento Valley, where the farms are ten times as large. The average popu- 

 lation of the Utah district was over 300 people to the square mile; the 

 district traversed in California has less than 10 people to the square mile. 

 The Utah lands range in value from S50 to 8150 an acre: the lands of the 

 Glenn estate in the Sacramento Valle}- are heing offered for sale from SlO 

 to $40 an acre. Every natural advantage is in favor of California; but the 

 Utah district is imgated, the other is not. 



OPPOSITION TO IRRIGATION. 



The benefits of irrigation seemed so obviovis and the necessity for it so 

 great that its absence was at first attributed to lack of opportunity. This, 

 however, is not the case. In repeated interviews with leading citizens of 

 this section it was manifest that the principal reason the land is not irrigated 

 is because of the prejudice against irrigation. The first gentleman talked 



