The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-05-28
About California.

reports about matters in general on the
Pacific coast, have concluded to speak Of
some things which know about California.
1t is true that this year the drouth is more
general than for the last ten years, still
severe drOuths have visited some portions
of that state as often as every third year
since its settlement, or that gold has been
discovered; and why there is 30 much cry
now is, that the country was over stocked.
Every nook ard corner of the state has been
explored and covered with cattle horses and
sheep in 30 much that no market could be
sustained. At least four times as much
meat has been grown as there were mouths
to consume it, and the distance from east
ern markets prevents its shipment as a pay
ing business. Any person with half an eye
would form a pretty correct idea what
the final result would be. Two-tbirds of
the stock has been either removed back
farther into the mountains or out of the
state. One shepherd lost bis whole band
of Il. 900 sheep by freezing. As soon as
onto Greenhorn mountain in Kern county /;
the result was that deep snow-the first
of the season-fell in April, and they all
died. He showed US eight bells that he
had taken from the herd, this was all he had
left. As for lands being sold "for one
twentieth of its value" l saw thousands of
acres that could be bought for one. fiftieth
of its real value. There are any amount of
lands in some parts now lying idle which
are worth, under cutivation,o or will pay the
interest of 800 to the acre, that can be
bought for s1,25. Farms this year, near
where lived, rent for from $25 to S35 per
acre in large quantities, that were bought
within ten years for from one dollar to two
dollars per acre. Thousands upon thou
sands of acres of prairie lands were sold
during April and May at government fig
ures, 81 ,25, that are as well worth for gen.
eral cultivation, 100 per acre, as the best
Vermont lands are $25. Two crops can
be raised in the year and.people become, in
a general way indolent and lazy. A man
who takes up 20 acres in a favored local
ity, after it is fenced, with shanty ON it,
school family and SIT on the fence four
days out of seven.
1t is hard finding laboring man there
that will work steady for one dollar per
day for six months. The working class, as
general thing, are a miserable looking
class in the main, they are poor though they
might, and do obtain $500 per year in gold,
and board on farms for instance and they
are poor. They float around, they drink,
gamble and get rid of their money. The
climate is so mild that forty dollars of
clothing will keep person comfortable and
we'll dressed throughout the year.
In Kern county, where I stopped most of
the time, shearers earned from So to IS per
day in gold.right along for two months; nine
tentho would put their wages up at stake
on the gambling board o'nights. The at
mosphere is all pregnated with gambling
institutions In California. The mines are
run by gamblers, and all the miners gam
BILE, and how can you expect prosperity un-
der such state of thugs, all other evils at.
tend aud follow this class of society. Not
over one person in ten dies in southern Cal
ifornia, especially in Kern county with any
natural disease. But one murderer has
ever been hung there ; witnessed that. 1t
had no effect upon society to make them
better. Two have since been killed in
sight of the gallows, and the criminals go
free.
Farmers are settling inland there is bet
ter state of things than formerly. The
judges of the courts cannot be depended
upon, they drink and gamble. Jails are
instituted right under the court rooms you
might as we'll think of running cotton
factory or q. Universalist church loacate over
a powder house, as to expect justice in
court, situate over the influence which
pervades one of these bells, where the vilest
people on earth are packed in together. An
influence from such an institution would
defeat justice. These things will be righted
by-and-by. Hard times is an advantage to
country where greed and gain are made
easy without steady manual labor.
The land there produces, in fair to good
seasons twice as much a. it does here in
Vermont, with one-half the expense of cul-
ture. 30 that if the culturist would put by
one-third of his products for bad seasons,
he would accumulate wealth faster aud live
better than farmers can here. Volunteer
crops of all kinds will support family with
scarcely no culture in many districts. Vol
unteer crops of beets, turnips and potatoes,
were taken off in loads from the farm left
the last week in April. From thirty acres
over $1,000 value of barley and grain was
harvested and sold last year, adjacent to our
house, and as promising crops are now
ready for the sickle as grew there last year,
and this land was bought for one dollar
per acre, not many years ago.
The desert land bill that recently passed
congress has stimulated parties to take up
thousand of acres of lands for farming pur-
poses, since its passage; at 81 20 per acre.
There is no estimating the value of these
lands, as they will become ten years hence,
which lie near the irrigating canals.
Some parties have secured from ten to forty
thousand &C es quite recently in the neigh
borhood wLee / lived. All kinds