The morning call., 1890-05-08
AGRICULTURE AS IT STANDS.

The first idea which strikes the traveller
in California is that this is State of mag
niicent distances. Without quitting the
State the traveller may journey in straight
line as far as from Boston to Cleveland
Ohio, or as far as from New York to the
heart of Kentucky. The shortest diameter
of the State is longer than the longest di-
ameter of most of the old States The
counties are as big as most Eastern States
Los Angeles, before the creation of the
county of Orange, was nearly as large as
Connecticut. From this immensely of area
proceed two features which catch the eye of
observers. First, population appears very
sparse indeed, though California probably
co ntaiDs as many people as Wisconsin, and
more than Alabama and New Hampshire;
and secondly, the cities and stations at
which the railroads stop are very wide apart.
As rule, in region as fertile as Calilor-
MIA, and which has been inhabited by white
men for century, freight and accommoda-
ton trains stop every ten minutes at least.
Here twenty to thirty minutes eapse be-
tween stoppages.
The principal drawback to the develop
ment of this State has been the pleth ora
of its resources. California has been ham
dicapped by its natural wealth. In the two
great valleys, in the mesa lands of the
wooded counties of the north, in the Sierra
counties, and the semi-tropical counties of
the south, the earth has always been ready
to bring forth Its increase almost without
tlllage. Hence, on the one hand, farmers
have taken up more land than they could
properly handle. and on the other, they
have grudged their farms INTEL igent labor
There Is but little thorough agriculture in
the State, and considering the average size
Of the farms there could not be. The tray
eler who traYerSes the valley of the Santa
Clara, of the Pajaro, and of the Salinas. or
the smiling slope. which spreads from the
foothills of the Sierra to the western boun-
dairy Of Alameda County, is amazed at the
exuberant fertility Of the soil. But his
surprise is mingled with pain when he con-
trasts the wholesale methods in which that
soil is handled with the careful, thorough
and intelligent tillsge which land receives
In Southern England or Northern Germany,
or the whole of France. In England, or in
Genesee Valley, n. y, soil far less rich in
nutriment than ours yields thirty and
thirty-fve bushels of wheat to the acre.
while we consider that we are doing we'll
when We get eighteen. In the one case,
man assists providence in the work; in the
other, nature is left unaided to perform the
task.
A searcher after facts lately inquired at
the office Of the Surveyor General in this
State how many of the 100000 acres of
land comprised within the borders OF Cali.
fornia were tilable. The official was
panied at the indelicacy Of the inquiry. He
did not know. No one knows. But OBJ
servatlOn from the windows of passing car
leads to the conviction that 1t is larger than
people imagine. Even in Santa Clara
County, where land commands fancy prices,
the hillsides are virgin. The farmer seeds
the level land and deems his duty DONE
But those hillsides which are not denuded
oil alluYium, and enjoy a southeastern or
southwestern exposure, will some day grow
the hnest grapes and olives produced in the
otate. vi course rancher who undertakes
to handle two or three hundred acres cannot
afford to deal with so large an area on scien-
tlfic principles. He cultivates only those
portions of his holding which can be- culti-
waited with the least trouble. BY and by.
when pressure of population causes these
large farms to be cut up the occupant of
twenty acres will be able to apply the dis
coVeries OF modern agricultural science to
his farm, and in his hands larger crops will
be harvested from single acre than our
present slapdash method gets out of five.
But that is in the future.
Not the least obstacle against which the
California farmer has to contend is made
guate transportation. 1t is useless to raise
crops unless they can be transported to
market al the cost of reasonable per-
centage of their value. LII this transporta-
ton matter California is behind all the
Eastern agricultural States. Minnesota.
with probably less population than Cali
nd hal tic l,a, exxrtaa
miles of railroad; Kansas, with the same
area as Minnesota and perhaps as many
people, has also twice the railroad mileage