The record-union., 1891-08-07

I
land village?
In the Sacramento Valley there is room
for the profitable location of the entire
population of New England. When irri-
cation and drainage join hands, and devo-
ton of the soil to its noblest utility takes
the place of one-egg-in-o one basket farm
ing, this city will be greater market in
vine and olive products, in stone and
citrus fruits, that many cities of the Me-
dIterranean combined.
WE HAVE NEGLECTED OUR INTERESTS
And ignored our opportunities too much.
We have presented this State to the world
too much in its finished aspect. We have
made pictures of horses and orchards and
vineyards, with the soil all occupied.
When the daughters of an old man are
all married, the young men come no more
courting to his house, and the front gate
rustS on its hinges. We have too much
advertised California as matron, and too
| little as maiden.
Men who seek q new home are more
attracted by land, to which their labor is
to add value than by land on which
labor has already put value, which is
above the means they have at command.
WORK OF THE STATE BOARD.
The State Board of Trade has by great
outlay shown millions of people in the
East what our rural industries may prof
itably produce, and its exhibit Of Cali
fornia on Wheels has been followed by
| a broadside of Interrogation points-of
questions that must be answered, and
! having served as the States show win
dow, it must be now the States voice to
answer the inquiry that it has raised in
every part of the Union.
1t requests and requires the co-opera-
tion Of Sacramento and every city and
rural community. We have to show that
our land prices i'll excess OF land prices in
| thf SNf1.,
production with lighter labor; we have to
show that we have millions of tillable
acres on which the most profitable pro-
ductlon is yet a stranger, and therefore
these are virgin lands; we have to show
that taxation is not a mortgage upon in
dustry; we have to show that house
and housekeeping and house-furnishing
and the equipment Of farm with stock
and tools are possible at q cost that is not
a bar to Immigration. Finally we must
in some way
OFFSET THE COST OF COMING
So long a journey to spy out the land, as
! every prudent man desires TO do in adj
vance Of final decision. The movement
of population across the Western prairies
was easy; a covered wagon with team in
front and COW TIED behind carried the
seeds of empire into Illinois. Iowa and
the great West.
! But between California and the popula-
tons from which ours must be recruited
are vast reaches OF desert and lofty mount
ain chains. ! suggested this bar to Mr..
Butler, the great r2sin-planter OF Fresno,
and got in return an idea, rs all men may
| from that gentleman, whose intelligent
diligence III his business ranks him
among the genuinely great men OF the
State. He said that i'll the raiSin vine
! yards OF Fresno can be furnished en-
plOymcnt for q thousand men four
months every year.
What is true Of that industry may be
true of others, and therein is one of the
means that may be used to put California
under the inspecting eye of the East. /
remember when farmers and the sons of
farmers followed the wheat harvest from
the valley Of the Ohio to the valley Of the
Red River of the North, to return home
with their wages in their pockets.
- can remember, too, - said the speaker,
when the sons OF farmers poled flat
boats down the continents of the Missis-
sippi River and that stream itself, laden
with pork and wheat, seeking mark ct
abroad, to return with the price of their
service and an enlarged experience which
| made them neighborhood oracleS. Such
organization as the State Board OF
Trade can bring to bear may bring to
California precisely that class to an as
sured service which will buy their fare
both ways and leave them q surplus. and
know that amongst the young farmers
OF the prairie States there is the same in
dustry and love of proper adventure that
existed forty years ago, and | believe
| that each one would be a missionary to
tell the story of this State and recruit it
| with an industrious population that has
f.. had what [ believe to be the best training
/ in the world-in the home OF American
| farmers