The morning call., 1890-07-10
THE DUTCH AT MERGED.

The planting in Merced County of a
Dutch colony, consisting of persons of
means from Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Delft,
The Hague and other centers Of population
in Holland, is an event of no ordinary i'm
portance. These immigrants are OF as good
stock as any in Europe. They have money
to buy land and improve it; they come pre-
pared to develop the resources of their new
home in accordance with the rules OIL
modern agricultural science. They nave
chosen as their settling place one OF the
best counties in the San Joaquin Valley,
and are locating, to begin with, on part
Of it which is abundantly irrigated by the
Crocker-Huffman Canal. They informed
our Consul on departing from Rotterdam
that their lands would cost them S1f5 an
acre.
The Dutch possess more wealth per head
than any other people OF Europe. This
they owe TO generations of industry, thrift
and shrewdness. No matter how scarce
money may be, borrowers in good credit
can always get funds in Amsterdam, and
the bankers of that wealthy city rarely
make mistakes. In the throes of our civil
war Amsterdam sold European securities
to invest in our five-twenties at 40 cents in
gold on the dollar. The English assumed
to make merry at their expense, and pre-
dicted that the bonds would soon be charged
to profit and loss. But the Dutch lived TO
sell those same bonds to these same English
at 100 cents in gold. As in the cities, so In
the country. A Dutch farmer is always
well to do. He works hard and spends
little, so that when he dies he leaves an es-
tate which his children increase.
Unfortunately for the countrymen OF Pc
ter Stuyvesant their country is too small
for them. 1t is not bigger than Maryland,
and it contains population nearly as
large as the hole of this country west of
the Missouri River OF course this in
wolves crowding. In the old days, when
sturdy old Won Tromp secured the seas
with a broom at his masthead. the
Dutch laid hands on territory in South
eastern Asia, and annexed Java, Sumatra
and a swarm Of other tropical islands.
The idea of the Netherlands statesmen
was the same as Bismarck tO-day-they
were in search Of home for their sur
plus population under the old Dutch fi2g.
But the experiment did not succeed. The
proportion of Dutchmen who were willing
to eXpatriate themselves to dwell in those
t0rrid climes was small. The Dutch East
Indies have never housed much over $4,000
Dutehmen, though the native population
is over 10000, coo. As financial venture
the operation was also a failure; the colo
NAL budget shows a regular annual deficit.
which has to be met by taxes on the people
at home.
1t looks now as though the migration of
the surplus people of Holland might take
the direction of this country and this
State. For several years small Dutch colo
MES have been drifting into the Central
States. largely into Iowa and Kansas. Ac-
cording to the records of immigration $4,000
Dutchmen have immigrated to this country
in the past seventy years. But the rewards
of agriculture in States which can only
grow wheat and corn, and those only in
good years, cannot have been liberal. The
Dutch are awakening to the fact that Cali
fornia offers larger and more varied OPEN
ings to newcomers. In MERGED County on
irrigated land every description of fruit
can be grown-the finest grapes, producing
the best TaiSins and an excellent wine,
wheat, barley and other grains. 1t is doubt
full if anywhere else in the world can so
varied an assortment of thrifty fruit-treeS
be seen as at the Buhac nursery, in that
county. The land is light, sandy loan, in
which, when water is supplied, plants ger
inmate like magic, and grow almost as fast
as in the tropics. In the hands Of indus
trious and intelligent Dutchmen the whole
of this tract lying east OF the railroad
would become garden.