Smyrna times., 1883-05-23
Bonanza Farms.

A few months ago q sensation was
created in California by the murder of
q great ranch-owner who had long
been famous as q representative OF the
new school of farmers. DIR. Glenn's
wheat field, the circuit of which was
lively days ride, was celebrated in
books of travel, and every stranger
wished to see it as a specimen of the
"bonanza farms which were to reve-
lutionize the agricultural systems of
the fertile West. He owned enormous
productive estates in various parts of
the Pacific slope, and gave employment
to armies of laborers. When his af-
fairs came to be settled after his death
there was another sensation. 1t was
doubtful for time whether he died @
millionaire or abankrupt. There were
debts to the amount of million dollars
on the principal farm. 1t was a dry
season and the crop was light. At last
it is announced that there will be a con-
siderable surplus to divide among the
heirs; although the vast fortune which
report very naturally assigned to this
great wholesale operator in farm labor
has shrunk to modest dimensions.
The collapse of the Glenn enterprise
is not to be regretted. 1t was carried
on, as we now know, with difficulty
and danger. Drouth and other acci-
dents of husbandry, which brought dis
appointment and perhaps embarrass-
ment to the small farmer, might sweep
away from the bonanza wheat grower
the last penny of his fortune and the
last shred of his credit. 1t is well for
ambitious men to see something of the
risk attending the absorption of i'm
mense tracts of land in a single estate.
Because most kinds of manufacturing
are economically ard efficiently con-
Quoted in large establishments, we are
apt to assume that the tillage of the
earth can best be managed ON the same
wholesale plan. The tendency to-
ward this experiment has been strong
ly marked at the West, where large
tracts of fertile land await occupation
But nobody seems to succeed in keep
ing such Overgrown estates together
If they are not broken up after awhile
for business reasons, they are sure to bC
divided by the interference of death
There are landowners now in Cali
fornia who are fully aware of the dan
gers of undue concentration, and arr
cutting up their estates as a matter o
policy, believing that one of the great
est injuries they could do their chill
dren would be to leave them too mucl
land. The farm laborer in this countr,
has universally the ambition to becom
o farm owner. He is not content t,
work permanently for wages; he viii
not look on patiently while few ricl
oh oil fl,n oh nd
ask him to do for them the work whic
cannot be done by machinery; and
the bonanza system should ever be cal
ried so far as to make real divisio
between the laborer and landowner
one class holding the property Will
the other had the numbers and th
votes-we should see some startlin
social disturbances and some wild lie;
islation.
The small farmer has been the gre;
safeguard of our civilization. If v
have never had any serious and pr
longed conflicts between labor al
capital if the people have always bee
order-loving, just and in the best sen
of the word conservative if we ha'
been able to receive millions of Il
poor and discontented from forei,
countries and convert them without t
least friction into thrifty and usef
citizens, it is because we have made
our national policy to give every M
who wants it stake IN the countl
The typical American farmer is labor
and capitalist at once and wherev
the two great forces of society are th
united there must be prosperity a
peace.-N. Y. Tribune.