The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1872-06-27

L told you that much of the land is
rented. 1t is usual for the land owner TO
furnish seed, feed for the teams, all the
tools and machinery needed for putting
In and harvesting the crops, aud the land
and necessary buildings, and he gets half
the crop put in bags on the field. The
renter, as the tenant is called, furnishes
only the teams and men, and the supplies
for the men. The arrangement is not
lnequltable ; and it gives, as you will see,
an important advantage to a man without
capital. An eight horse team is worth
about 5000; with five such teams, and
hive men-who receive in the winter $50
per month and rations-4000 acres can
be put into wheat.
When the work is done, the teams can
be hired out, or they can be turned into
pastures without cost. | was not surprs-
ed to hear that many men have become
rich as renters. Two or three good crops
enable renter to buy large tract of his
own. | do not know what is the net pro-
fit of the land owners under this system.
but was told that one, who has 10000
acres, refused to rent land for 81 year
per acre. At this rate, many of the large
land owners, who rent their land for wheat
crops, must make nearly 100 per cent
per annum on their original investments;
foryo must understand that these plains
| lay for years in the market as Congress
land, and could get no buyers and it was
only during the war that men began to
think them valuable Then thousands
of acres were bought for greenbacks, when
| gold-the currency of this State-was at
| from $50 to 200 that is to say, these
lands cost from 60 to IS cents per acre.
do not doubt that the whole Of the great
counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern
would have been gobbed up by the land
| monopolists at the same rate, had not the
Government given a land grant in these
counties to the Southern Pacific Railroad,
and withdraw the whole of the public
lands from sale at the same time From
this it results that the "eveu sections"
are now open only to pre-emption or home
stead settlement, in tracts of from 80 to
l60 acres, and thus more than 900 600
acres of the most fertile soil in the world
were saved for small farmers, who are
now coming in in advance of the railroad,
aud taking up these Congress and Rail
road lands, must of which are of better
quality and capable of more various pro.
duction than the Merced plains.
FRONTIER ECONOMY.
The buildings put up for renters are, as
you may guess, as slight and poor as can be-
There is a shanty for cooking and sleeping
the farm laborer here furnishes his own !
bedding and does his own washing aud |
his equipment is usually two thirts and |
pair of blankets There is a well, and |
barn roomy enough to hold the hay and |
barley aud the teams. The renter either
has a house of his own elsewhere, or, if |
he is poor, his family live in the shauty
there is no vegetable garden, there are no
trees, there is absolutely y nothing to make
life endurable or pleasant; and the only
care of owner and tenant is to get as much
out of the land each year as they can, at
the least expense. 1t is not a pleasant
system of agricultural, nor one which can
be permanent. But it develops in the
farmers who prartice it a great deal of
enterprise, and very shrewd business
habits. They make money by economy
in cultivation ; and they are very quick
may juuge from those | met. l should
say these wheat farmers are an unusually
intelligent set of men. with great courage.
"Last year | fed my teams but once
day, the whole season, aud worked them
hard, too" said one to me. GLOW could
you be so inhuman z" | exclaimed. 'By
Jove," he answered, 81 was not inhuman;
[ was poor | had very little to eat my.
self" A nurserymau wished to have
piece of 20 acres plowed ten inches deep,
but was told it could not be done with
the gaug-plows. "Why not try single
plow - ventured to suggest. "No,
Sir" farmer replied 81 don't saJe
single plow you cant get any man to
put hand to his plow here" One far
mer told me, in reply to some questions,
that he had lost $4,000 in the last two
years. He expected to make at least ,,
$4,000 clear of all expenses this year
He had paid for seed aud Iced, shipped , I,
from San Francisco, to put in his crop
this winter, 81 500.
BEET FARMING. ;
Another farmer shrewdly remarked to =
me that when the wheat crop is large en-
ough to supply the State, and little
over, then wheat was pretty sure to be t
very low in prce-lower than when the y
crop was very great "because," said he, t
"a heavy crop draws ships here to carry i
i off with light crop, the small sur d
plus weighs on the market, because no r
ships come to take it away" | reproach- 4
I'd some of them for not planting trees, .
md the answer was, eve don't go cent /
,n anything but wheat in this county b
We all want to get rich in two years = 4
But the men spoke with saw the evil of .
his farming, aud are prepared to welcome !
better things. The soil in Merced coun-