House and Garden 
ments 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 ^ acres of alfalfa and 16 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. 
Everything The place changed hands, the new 
Pays owner paying ^3,500 cash for it. 
He expended ^1,000 more in changing conditions, 
and put $500 in cows and chickens, making the 
place stand him $5,000. He then had 10 good 
grade cows, valued at $40 each, 100 young laying 
hens, 10 turkey hens and 2 gobblers, 4 horses, 10 
hogs. He increased his alfalfa patch to 8 acres 
and put 13 acres into berries, fruits and vegetables. 
This took in the twenty-one acres of bottom land. 
On the 19 acres of hill land he increased his or¬ 
chard to five acres and his vineyard to five acres. 
His house grounds, with the stable, corrals and 
poultry yards, covered three acres more, leaving 
six acres on the hill surrounding the spring in 
timber, from which he got all his firewood. I he 
forty-acre place which ran one man into debt 
brought the new owner who worked with his 
brains and hands over $3,000 a year, and it was 
not an exceptional year either. 
There is a demand in California for 
Q^fcifRefurns products of a diversified farm. 
thousands of carloads of poultry 
products, dairy products, livestock and meats are 
shipped into California every year. The diversified 
farm brings in quick, frequent and cash returns 
for the labor expended. 1 he farmer gets cash for 
his milk from the creamery every thirty days; 
he gets cash for his poultry products and for his 
fruits and vegetables. His hogs fatten on skim 
milk and sell for cash. If the intensive, diversified 
farm be run intelligently, there will be a monthly 
cash income that will he as regular as a salary. 
and much more satisfactory than any salary 
earned by the man who works at a desk or counter 
in the city, for it will carry with it the feeling of 
ownership in the business which pays the salary, 
and the further satisfaction that the man who 
draws the money is his own employer. 
There is a wonderful future for intensive farm¬ 
ing in California. With the richest soil in the 
world, and the water which can be impounded to 
successfully irrigate this soil, there is no limit to 
its productivity. The day will come when the 
great interior valley, the combined Sacramento 
and San joaquin valleys, will be given over to 
intensive farming, and that vast area of fifty miles 
wide by five hundred miles long will he the most 
productive place on the globe. In the southern 
part of the State the opportunities for intensive 
and diversified farming on small ranches are in¬ 
creasing every year with the development, while 
all along the coast clear up to the country which 
was formerly given over to the lumber industry, 
small farms are now taking the lead. Coincident 
with this increase of the number of small farms 
comes the increased demand for the products raised 
on thenij and with all the increase of production there 
has been no diminution of the demand; rather 
has there been an increase in demand and a con¬ 
sequent increase in prices paid for the farm prod¬ 
ucts. With every increase in the population of 
the farmino; districts of the State there is an increase 
of the city population which calls for the increased 
supply of farm products. 
Good land for intensive farming can he bought in 
many parts of California for from $50 to $100 an 
acre. This can be had on a small cash payment 
and easy terms for the balance, if a man so desire. 
A small house with the other necessary improve- 
’ ments on a twenty-acre farm with horses, cows and 
poultry can be had for a sum that will make the 
total cash outlay in the beginning, not more than 
$3,000. This farm will give an active, energetic 
man a good living for himself and family, and will 
let him put a good sum into the savings hank each 
year. 
34 
