Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-01
ECONOMY OF CLIMATE.
ITS IMPORTANCE TO INTENDING
H0ME-SEEKERS.
Some Facts for Eastern People to
Consider-The Advantage OF
Wintcrless Countries.

CONSIDERING Advantage OF
Winterless Countries.
Written for the New Year $ REcoR1-UsIoN by
DR.. II. Latham, Secretary Northern California
immigration Assoeiation.l
To a Home-Seeker: You are only one of
hundreds of thousands who are anxious to
seek homes in newer countries. You are
tired of the worn-ou soils of the Atlantic
slope. the oft-divided homesteads of the
prairies, or of the crowded cities, where
there is a superabundance of labor You
are seeking to locate where moderate
means with industry and energy, will
give you the comforts and luxuries of a
home, and provide you with the means of
support in the evening of life.
You will want information as to
the soil, timber and climate so
far as it relates to production
You will want to know all about the
means of transportation for your pro-
ducts, and all about the mail facilities
schools and churches. These are import
ant subjects of inquiry and unless the re-
plies fiom any country are satisfactory you
will be justified in not making a lvcation
There is another subject of inquiry, which
may not have suggested itself to your mind
which is perhaps more important TO your
welfare than all the foregoing.
ECONOMY OF CLIMATE
This is the subject of clinate and It's reia-
ton to the net annual products Of farm
labor, and the accumulation of sufficient
means during working life to make you
Independent of labor in your declining
years, and as it relates 20 your health, COM
fort and long life. To the field worker
climate is two-edged sword. cutting both
ways. If the winters are long and rigorous
you cannot labor more than one-half
of the year in the field. In other
words, you lose one-half of your life,
so far as producing the means for the sup
port of your family, and so far as the ac-
emulation for old age is concerned. On
the other side of this sword long winters
cut down summer earnings, and reduce the
net product OF the year. The longer and
colder the winter, the less the net annual
results will be. For more than hundred
years the people of the East have been
settling the lake basins and the upper Mis-
sissippi and Missouri valleys, the climates
of which give less than twenty-six weeks
for field work, and which make imperative
0CihdidS utbOIl tllt DuiStS anu SlDTtnOuseS
of the settlers. This climatic condition
affects your stock of horses, sheep and
cattle, and all your domestic animals on
the farm. The cost of rearing such animals
Is much more expensive than in mlder
climates. In all the country of the United
States, north of the fortieth parallel, and as
lar west as the eastern base of the Sierra
Nevada, winter reigns supreme for six
months in the year. In that time no field
work can be done. 1t is impossible to
figure, in dollars and cents, just how much
these rigorous winters
AFFECT THE FARMERS PURSE.
We can arrive at it approximately, how
ever. Twenty-six weeks have 1855 working
days. If your individual labor is worth 81
net each day land that IS about the average
price of farm labor in this country You
will be S156 loser on your personal labor
alone by each winter. Your teams are idle
also. The labor of each pair of horses.
working in the field should be worth 10
cents net per day. If you have
one PAIR your loss for each win
ter will be Sill. If you have two
pairs of horses You will lose 1924 if
three pairs. S351, and if four pairs, $46s.
each year. There are many farmers in win
ter countries who have many more horses
than this, and their losses on horse-teams
proportionately large. The loss on the
labor OF one man and one pair OF horses for
one year is therefore 1913 the loss for ten
years is $2,730, and if simple interest at s
per cent. on each years losses were added
the total loss for ten years would be
$3,417 10-a sum sufficient to buy quite a
nice farm
There are other items which you will
have TO charge up to Winter. if YOU live in
Ia l.
require shelter and feed through long
months. You will be lNcky if you do not
have to feed each one of your cows and
Young horses upon an average of more
than two tons OF hay each winter. That
is worth, one winter with another say SIG.
If you have ten head of such stock, one
winters hay will cost you Si60, and ten
winters $1,000. This sum, with simple in
terest at s per cent. for ten years, will
amount TO $1,000. If you have more than
that amount of stock, the cost will be in
proportion.
You Will find that the same is true on
all the stock you have. 1t is not alone in
the loss of labor of yourself and teams,
and In the expense of keeping your stock
that extreme cold affects your purse un-
favorably. The shelter for man end beast
must be much warmer, and therefore more
expensive than in mild climates. The diff
terence OF cost OF structures to resist the
winter blasts of Minnesota or Dakota and
those structures required in a winterless
country will represent considerable sum.
In countries where the mercury marks 200
ana 50o below zero, the houses, cellars
barns and other shelters of good farm
Will cost $500. In a winterless country
two-thirds of that sum will furnish the
required buildings. The difference in the
building investment will, therefore, be
1882, upon which you lose the interest
land principal, tool when the buildings
are destroyed by time and have to be re-
placed. This interest III ten years amounts
10 SG65 40 There are other expenses
which winter demands. You must have
blazing fires for long months in every in
habited room IN your houses Ii will be
believed by those reared in cold countries
that the excess of fuel costs $50 per year
more there than it would where flowers
bloom at the doorstep through the winter
months. In ten years, with simple inter
est, tins Will amount to 1894 which YOU
must charge up on your ledger against
winter.
THE INCREASED cosr
OF family's clothing will average $50
more each year. and for ten years it will
amount to 1894. Then there is the aues-
ton OF clothing TO enter into your ac-
count. To protect a family from the
temperatures that mark from zero to 100
below that point for months, will require
the warmest clothing. This will cost
family $50 year more than would be re-
CURED where there is no ice nor snow. nor
cold Winds. This at the end of ten years
viii add 1894 to the amount already on
your ledger.
This is not all that winter demands of
you. 1t demands costly Matchmaking food
to resist the intense cold that is chilling
your life's blood. II must have animal fats
that contain high percentages of carbon.
from which animal heat is evolved 1t de-
mands them three times a day, too. and
they are costly. You will find. if YOU
should keep an account, that this food
through six months of winter, will have
cost you fully $50 more than it would cost
You to feed family in a winterless coun-