The morning call., 1892-03-13

leagues are largely responsible for it,"
Can you really show that the land
Darons are increasing their holdings?" was
asked.
Yes, indeed, I can. Figures don't lie,
though liars may figure. Now, l get my
hgureS from man whose business it is to
look alter such matters all the while. Sup
pose we go into the broad Sacramento Val
ley and see what we can find there of the
possessions OF people who would like to own
the earth and are prepared to give the order
Tor the barbed-wire fence. There we find
mat the Tour principal counties OF the val
ley are YOlo. Colpsa, Butte and Tehama.
They embrace an area of S547 square miles,
or 100000 acres. In the counties named
there were in 1850 seventy-0ne holders hay
ing 5000 acres aud upward, and the aggre-
gate OF these Seventy-one holdings was 49,
76l acres. In 1855 there were eighty five
holders having 5000 acres aud upward, and
the aggregate Of their holdings was /, 100, 4S4
acres. La 1880 there were LOG holdings, each
Of 5000 acres and upward, and the aggregate
was ], AS. 104 acres. The increase in tie aggre-
gate of Individual holdings of 5000 acres
and upward was 100000 acres. THUS there
had fallen into this larger class 100000 adj
ditional acres. and the class had increased
from II TO JOG. Surely the land baronS of
the Sacramento Valley are holding their
own. to say the least.
I'm 1880 the fifty largest holders III Tehama
County held 2G4, 435 acres. In 1885 they held
$4,000 acres. In 1890 they held $751; 4S
acres. Aggregating the fifty in each county
that is TO say, the 200 largest holders in the
four counties, and the aggregate in the year
1880 1872, 635 acres. Iu 1885 twas 1885,
2l9 and in 1890 it was 1,78l,3lS acres. Now
for comparison OF the largest holdings
In 1880 the largest holding was 81, 1877 acres.
In 1885 the largest WASH, 1913 acres, while the
biggest of the cacramentoV alley barons had
grabbed enough by the year 1890 To give him
10000 acres. / cannot get the figures for
1892, as there Is no official record showing
them, but | am asked TO believe that the
largest holding in the valley to-day is 49,
COO acres.
"AIl this Is as nothing to the holdings in
the San Joaquin Valley, but we will cou-
tinue TO consider the state of things in the
former region for the present The effect
of the acquisition of so much territory by
single individuals is most strongly witnessed
in the check which it places upon pOpula-
ton, In 1880 Tehama County had a popu-
latiOn of 1901. The natural gain in ten
years should have been 1860, but the actual
gain was only 615. In the four counties
there was population in 1880 of 52,S52,
whose natural increase In ten years would
be 1883. The actual increase. as shown
by the census, was only 3O49. There was.
therefore, in the rural districts of the Sac
ramento Valley. the fairest and most fertile
land of all California. a loss in population,
as one may put it. Of 1854.
"Chief among the reasons for this lack of
RtOWtll Us a Result VI large iduQ ID
that they superinduce absenteeism. The
man who can collect the income FROM 90. coo
acres Of land IS not going to live on that
land, for tie reason that there is, particu-
larry in the West, so much of crudity and
rawness which he can escape by going to
thickiy populated region. He naturally
seeks the pleasures to be found in large
city, and there he and his family reside. the
daughters TO 60 to the musical conserva-
tories and the sons TO become young bloods.
whose sole anxiety is as to whether their
trousers legs are free from wrinkles.
Tho small holder on the margin of the
greater has no neighbors ia one direction,
except the few very undesirable farm labor
ers, comprising chiefly tramps and Chinese,
and though his growing family demands at
his hands educational opportunities and
higher social enjoyment, he is not in posi-
ton to give it such advantages. So he de-
elares That he is ready to sell rather thanfo
submit TO this isolation. With each sale
the unfavorable condition is intensified, and
thus the land becomes cheaper as the social
condition attending its ownership becomes
more undesirable. Then it is grabbed up
by the big baron.
william ii. Mills tells me a curious
story of the result Of this sort of thing
During the past year, he says, a citizen