Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-08
THE QUESTION: OF LARGE LAND Held
INGs AHD SMALL FARMING.

Colonel Hollister is an advocate of large
farng-in other words, of land monop.
oily. A monopoly is an exclusive priv.
lege, and there is no privilege more inju-
riously exclusive than that which the law
permits, when under it, one or few men to
occupy the entire available agricultural
land of particular region to the exclusion
of the many whose occupancy would add
to the population and the material strength
of the country. Years ago, when the evil of
land monopoly was considered dreamers'
chimern, this journal pointed ont its dam
gers, and gathered and presented, at much
trouble and expense, statistics which to-
day are confessed to have been prophetic.
Mr.. HOLSTER claims that large farming
is the most economic, and therefore the
best for California. This, as our contem-
porary, the San Francisco Bulletin, clearly
points out, is really defense of land mo-
nopoly. It is unnecessary to recite in de-
tail Mr.. HOLSTERS arguments. They will
be apparent to the thoughtful. and are
purely economic in character. II might be
very readily admitted, in order to accom-
modate the argument of the land monop-
oily theorists, that a great farm under
proper superintendent can be "run
more cheaply than dozen farms of equal
area in the aggregate to the one large
tract. But the economy would be benef-
ciai only to the owner of the great tract,
while the State, in all that contributes to
It's advancement, would be a positive
loser. There are gains and gains, and
those of the pocket of the large land
owner are far from being the most benef-
eiEl to the State. The nation is vastly
better off with many thousand small poor
but independent farmers, than with few
exceedingly rich and large land owners
whose aggregate wealth and annual income
from lands far exceed the aggregate of the
gains of the other class.
Let us look at this matter in very
simple and common sense manner, for it is
by no means an involved question. It will
not be controverted that the necessity of
the State is population that the popula-
ton should be of kind contributive to
intelligence, and of character tending to
foster patriotic sentiments. That, there.
fore, which is destructive Of the independ-
ence OF the citizen, and tends to reduce his
interest in the State to the minimum that
which narrows the invitation to popula-
ton, and closes the door Of opportunity to
those who would otherwise come in to us,
and become of us, should be discouraged
and. perhaps, where it threatens to
dominate, should be met by legal restric-
ton or prohibition. But into that politioo-
economic question 1t is not now the pur-
pose to enter. further than TO say that the
delay TO settle it but augments the gravity
of the problem involved.
We may admit that the increasing in
vention and manufacture of agricultural
implements hiss had tendency to encour-
age large farming ventures. for it is easier
for the large farmer to put complicated ma.
chinery with steam motive power upon an
extensive tract; and is easier for him to
employ a large body of men TO harvest
crop or to put one in, than are the labors
and outlay of the small farmer to him.
Bat this admission in nowiae improves the
position of the land monopolist, since the
loss of human energy which his large farm
ing causes more than objects the contribu-
tion he makes to the State, material or
moral. If the few do the farming the
many must be driven to other voca-
tions, and those employed by the
large farmer can never equal in num-
Der or character this group. But no
large tract of land under the mo-
nopoly system will produce as much, or as
well, as if it were farmed by many indie.
pendent agriculturists. It ia hardly neces-
sary to point out the reasons for this, but
generally It may be said that experience
has established It; that the small farmer
oompels the land to its full duty; that his
cultivation, because limited, is more thor.
ough /; that his cultivation, because con-
Quoted on a small scale, drives him to a
full exercise of hia powers. physical and
mental, snd the product is not only thereby
made manifest by the increased yield CT
the soil, but in the development of men
and women fit to conquer and to iive-the
kind of men and women that go to make
up stable communities, with sIl their in.