Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-29
SUCCESS OF COLONIES.
1t is the One Thing Necessary for Cali
fOruia

fornia.
The following testimony of the success
attending establishing of colonies, as expe-
perience has shown in Southern Califor-
MIA, is given by the Los Angeles Express,
and is worthy the attention of our readers
The phenomenal growth of Southern
California is largely due to the colony sys-
tenn. Anaheim, Westminster, Santa Ana,
Compton, Pasadena, Covina and many
others in Los Angeles county, and River
side, Etiwanda, the Iowa Tract, San ia
cinto, Elsinore, Redlands, Ontario, Hes
peria, and many others in San Bernardino
county, have demonstrated the practicable
ity and success of this system. Large land
holders in Fresno county have adopted the
same plan with good results.
As at present practiced the most popular
system consists of buying extensive tracts
OF land, subdividing them, supplying them
with water for irrigation and domestic pur-
poses, then place the same on the market
in :" lots" of various sizes as desired. Some
companies furnish water with the land, so
many inches OF water to so many acres, the
rule of recently-inaugurated colonies being
to furnish one inch of water to every ten
acres of land, that amount being deemed
sufficient, with thorough cultivation of the
The terms of payment are usually made
easy as an inducement to purchasers of
moderate means to buy the land and to i'm
prove it more rapidly. The most success
full colonies have been those composed of
people in moderate circumstances, such as
that OF Anaheim, the parent colony of
southern California, the plan and success OF
which have been followed by many other
similar enterprises. The greatest difficulty
in the way of success seems to be the ques-
ton of support while waiting for develop
ments. Fortunately there are numbers of
nonresident purchasers who furnish work
for resident colonists of moderate circum-
stances in improving their places and render
ing them productive and desirable for resi-
dence before moving their families thereto
The difficulty experienced in obtaining
sufficient employment while waiting for
developments will however, always deter
numbers of experienced farmers and
orchardists from becoming colonists, and it
is problem that should be solved 1t is
not to be expected that the desirable results
obtained by the Anaheim colonists can be
repeated in every instance. Excellent man
agement and wise leadership of the Ana
helm enterprise enabled the purchasers of
the land to remain in their respective
houses and follow their occupations undis-
turbed until their places had become suf-
hcenty productive to remove thereto and
devote their entire attention to them Fol
lowing is a brief history of this pioneer
colony enterprise:
In 1887 fifty German mechanics, musi-
clans and laborers in San Francisco organ
lied a colony association and bought a tract
of land where the town of Anaheim now
stands. They were thrifty, industrious
people of moderate means, and they fol-
lowed their various occupations in order to
obtain the funds necessary to improve their
land and secure water facilities. They ap-
pointed civil engineer, a gentleman named
Hansen (the well-known surveyor of this
city, TO superintend the enterprise. The
tract contained L. 65 acres, and il was pur-
chased for few dollars per acre, but the
improvements involved heavy expendi-
lures, consisting of hundreds of miles of
irrigating bitches, small and large, roads to
be made, and vines and trees to be planted
and cared for until they arrived at maturity.
In three years the preparatory work was
completed, and the expenses had been de-
lrayed from the hard earnings of the own
ers of the lands. Then the land was d.
vided so as to give each owner twenty acres
of land and a town lot.
The owners then took possession, not of
wild, unimproved land, but productive and
profitable little homes, and many of them
are living there to this day, having in the
meantime accumulated wealth, which
would probably never have been attained
had it not been for the adoption of this ad-
mirable system,
Organization is indispensable to insure
success in any undertaking, and surely in
none more than the proper development of
an extensive area of land owned by large
number OF people, and having necessarily
greatly diversified interests
Individual effort cannot achieve the re-
suits attainable by systematic cooperation
or Oh ganization, nor is the same interest
manifested in the general welfare of COM
munlty where only individual interests are
concerned. A large area of land and water
right purchased by combination of set
tiers can, with proper management, be
rendered doubly valuable to all concerned
in other words, paying investment on
the money expended by the share
holders, and an inducement to hun
dreds of others to settle in the
community who would otherwise never
think of locating there Moreover.
the best interests of all the shareholders are
uniformly subserved. and on the most eco
nomical plan possible. Again, central
plan OF action governs the whole colony
instead of every settler thinking and acting
for himself. People coming from all parts
of the world thus benefit from each others
ideas on an intelligent basis, heinterchange
of ideas becoming a leavened mass and
nodded into one united plan of action that
ramifies throughout the colony as an ag-
gregate yet individual force. Thus the
combined force of opinion and ideas
acts in conjunction with or upon COM
bined or diversified resources, and all pro-
ducing the best results tremendously. In
conclusion, it is safe to assert that the
colony system enhances the prices of lands
more uniformly and free from fluctuations,
the range of productions are more diversi-
fed and the value thereof much higher
than if the growth and general interests of
the community are left to the care of indi-
viduals, verifying in word the old adage,
What is everybody's business is nc