Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-30
WHOLE NO. lO,9Ol.
Establish COLONIES.
Inc Importance of Such Movement and
the Beneficent Results

the State. They desire to increase the
| number of their producers and consumers.
To that end they have been engaged in
calling the attention of the people of the
| East to the advantages of their rich soil, 10
| their incompatible winterleSs climate, to
| their system of great rivers and their tribu-
| tarieS that flow everywhere from the noun
| talns down to the sea, to their vast forests
OF timber and to the unrivaed transporta-
ton facilities which we have both by land
| and water. This work has been done with
great labor and at considerable expense.
SO far as we have gone in this work of de-
veloping y country which is an empire in
| extent, and more than an empire in re-
! sources, We have done well. All our efforts
have, however, been directed toward in
ducing people to COM here
There IS just one more thing to be done
before we achieve success-that is to make
the necessary arrangements to keep people
here. We certainly don't want TO gather
fish for the nets of people in southern
California or Oregon. There is now
plenty of land for sale here, but it
| is not for sale in small subdivisions
to suit the class of purchasers which We
want, and which are coming here. Even
| where there is u small tract of land it is
| not in a condition to settle a family upon.
Grain-raising TO be profitable must be car
ned on upon a large scale. The people
coming here haven't the means to buy the
large tracts of land necessary for that busi-
ness, and even if they had, we gain nothing
| by swapping one large land-hold for
another large land-hoder We want small
| tracts of land for iruit-Growers of the type
| in Placer county and around Florin.
In proof of this it is a well-knuwn fact
that six sections of land around the latter
place, with their 20 and 40-acre homes.
| each one with its family Of workers, con-
tribute more to the support of business
mercantile, manufacturing and professional
than the 60,O00 acres of the original Del
Paso and San Juan grants. What we need.
then, for the good OF this part of the State
and of those who are seeking homes is the
subdivision OF some large land-holdings,
and running water brought 10 each 20-acre
subdivision. Then you have a business
proposition 10 make to the home-seeker.
You can say to him Buy this land, plant
the maju portion of it to decidunus fruits
apples, pears, peaches plums, apricOts
and cherrleS-and TO vines either of the
wine, table or raisin variety Put ont some
orange, lemon, fig and olive trees for orna-
| ment profit and luxury. On the balance
of your land sow alfalfa for your horses,
! COWS, pigs and fowls. From your cows you
can have all the butter and milk YOU want
less thoughtful and provident neighbor.
The pigs will grow and thrive on the alfal-
ia, and will furnish a supply of meat for
| your family and a surplus for sale. With
green food from the alfalfa your fowls will
| go far to pay all your grocery bills. Plant
! q general variety of vegetables, and YOU
| can have fresh ones for your table every
month in the year. Two or three acres of
strawberries, blackberries and raspberries
will complete the support of your family.
till your vines and trees make a return
1t is this kind of proposition which has
been made by the people of southern and
middle California to home-seekers for the
past ten Years, with what result we .have
seen in the uneXampled increase of busi-
ness, wealth and population in that section.
In that portion of the State there are fully
one hundred colonies, and all of them are
hourishing. In the upper half of the State
there is not single colony. We must have
colonies if we propose to draw and keep
home-hunters here. Colonies are not a
new machine of migration they are a
quarter OF century old. Colorado had
dozens of them, and every one made
homes and money for the colonists,
and swelled the bank accounts of
the projectors of the colonies. In any
| considerable neighborhood in the East
| there will be found several families of rela-
| tives or neighbors who want to 20 West,
but they shrink from going out alone
among strangers. They know that in the
ordinary modes they will be separated
when they arrive at their destination, and
then each family will be without acquaint-
ances. If they knew they could be located
| together, to be helpers to each other, they
! wonld move ct once In the single family
plan of settlement the settler enhances his
property only by his own labor. By the
| colony plan the labor of all enhances the
individual property. Cultivation and i'm
provement are everywhere. Neighbors are
| all around. School-houses, churches, stores
and shops spring up, and the comforts and
luXuries OF civilized life make property
valuable ana salable. All these develop
mentS bring profit to the colony projectors
as well as TO the colonists.
Thirteen years ago Riverside was started
Land was sold for so per ac:e, with water
rights. A tlourishing settlement grew UP.
The 20-acre tracts of land of the Individual
settler rapidly enhanced by his own labor
and that of all the other colonists, and now
brings fabulous prices. The unsold and
unimproved lands in the hands of the
originators of that colony was enhanced by
every house, barn or fence put up, by every
tree planted; and now, instead of $50 per
acre, lie can get from 800 to $400 per acre
for II. Before the water Infringing, subdi-
vision and colonization, this land was
greasewood and horned-toad desert, de-
spised by man, decent beasts and reptiles.
Pomona, Pasadena and a hundred other
colonies tell the same story of successful
development, wealth and prosperity.
The colonies are the keynote TO all that
has been achieved in southern California
for the past fifteen years. We have hun
dred places in the upper half of the State
where colonies could be successfully loca-
ted, which would attract and retain thou
sands of families All that is wanted is a
little public spirit, foresight and energy to
secure the land, subdivide it, bring water
TO 1t and then invite the home-seeker to
settle upon il. One successful colony in
the Sacramento basin would give birth
TO a hundred more and give us
boom greater and more lasting than
the one that has added 100000 coo to the
wealth of southern and middle California,
ard swelled so many purses and bank ac-
counts there. Is there the energy and en-
terpTise in the Capital City TO originate and
carry out a colony scheme on one of the
many eligible large land holdings here
We have the land, water, timber and soil,
ard the people would flock to it, and in
thirty days we should see new settlement
OF producers and consumers spring into ex-
istence that would rival Riverside Pomona
or Pasadena. Unles. this is done we shall
go on at the old business OF wheat-raising
on the great land holdings, and cur towns
and valleys will remain lonesome ami
sleepy. H. LATHAM,
Secretary Upper California Immigration
Association.