Huntsville gazette., 1891-02-07
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
What Are tho Chances There for Men Of
Small Capital?

What Are tho Chances There for Men Of
Small Capital?
Capital is necessary for successful
agriculture or horticulture in Southern
California. But where is it not needed?
In New England? In Kansas, where
land which was given to actual settlers
is covered with mortgages for money
absolutely necessary to develop it?
But passing this by, what is the chance
in Southern California for laborers and
for mechanics? Let us understand the
situation. In California there is no ex-
ception to the rule that continual labor,
thrift and foresight are essential to the
getting of a good living or the gaining
of competence. No doubt speculation
will spring up again. 1t is inevitable
with the present enormous and yearly
increasing yield of fruits, the better in
telligence in vine culture, wine-nleklng
and raisin-curing, the growth of mar
ketable oranges, lemons, etc, and the
consequent rise in the value of land.
Doubtless fortunes will be made by en-
terprising companies who secure large
areas of unimproved land at low prices,
bring water on them, and then sell in
small lots. But this will come to an
end. The tendency is to subdivide the
land into small holdings farms
and gardens of ten and twenty acres.
The great ranches are sure to be broken
up.
With the resulting settlement by
industrious people, the cities will again
experience "booms, but these are not
peculiar to California. In my mind l
see the time when this region (because
it will pay better proportionately to cul-
tivate small area) will be one of small
farms, of neat cottages, of industrious
homes. The owner is pretty certain to
prosper-that is, to get a good living
(which is independence and lay aside a
little yearly-if the work is done by
himself and his family. And the pc
culiarity of the situation is that the
farm or garden, whichever it is called,
will give agreeable and most healthful
occupation to all the boys and girls in
the family all the days in the year that
can be spared from the school. Aside
from the blowing, the labor is light.
Pruning, grating, budding, the picking
of the grapes, the gathering of the fruit
from trees, the sorting, packing and
canning, are labor for light and deft
hands, and labor distributed through
the year. The harvest, of one sort and
another, is almost continuous, so that
young girls and boys can have, in well
settled districts, pretty steady employ
ment-a long season in establishments
packing oranges; at another time, in
canning fruits; at another, in packing
raisins.
1t goes without saying that in the
industries now developed, and in
others as important which are in their
infancy (for instance, the culture of the
olive for oil and as an article of food,
the growth and curing of figs, the gath
ering of almonds, English walnuts,
etc., the labor of the owners of the
land and their families will not suffice
There must be as large a proportion of
as there is in other regions
where such products are grown. Chi
nese labor at certain seasons has been
a necessity. Under the present policy
of California this must diminish, and it's
place be taken by some other. The pay
for this labor has always been good. 1t
is certain to be more and more in de-
mand. Whether the pay will ever ap-
proach near to the European standard
is question, but it is a fair presump-
ton that the exceptional profit of the
land, owing to its productiveness, will
for long time keep wages up.
During the ''boom" period all wages
were high, those of skilled mechanics
especially, owing to the great amount
of building on speculation. The ordi-
and board and lodging; laborers of a
higher grade, 50 to $3.50 a day; skilled
masons, So; carpenters, from $3.50 to SIS;
plasterers, 81 to S5; house-servants,
from S25 to S35 a month. Since the
"boom," wages of skilled mechanics
have declined at least 25 per cent, and
there has been less demand for labor
generally, except in connection with
fruit-raising and harvesting. 1t would
be unwise for laborers to go to Califor-
mia on ap uncertainty, but it can be
said of that country with more conf
dence than of any other section that its
peculiar industries, now daily increas-
ing, will absorb an increasing amount
of day-labor, and later on it will remu-
nerate skilled artisan labor.-Charles
Dudley Warner, in HaEper's Maga-