The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-09-04

lard John SMITH Isl occupying on the San
Pablo rancho, say:120 acres. =.
rNnw, remember. as have already stated,
| that the land has been: appraised according
To its value and location, and not according
TO- .ehe improvements. Wren we come TO
examine John Smiths tract we find that he
has located on place that ;runs into lhe
hills. Part: of his lalid, say loo acres. we
have appraised at SIS an acre. Well, I'VE
debit him with $500 Fhe other twenty
acres of his place we have appraised at SIS
a q acre, say because it WAS rocky or marsh.
Well. we debit him with $500 more.
I'VE now have John Smith credited with
: $4,000 under the decree: Of the court and
debited with $1,000 " orth of land.
I'VE must therefore find him $1,000 worth
*ot Fshd somewhere in The rancho. 80.
i Suppose that adjoining John Smiths
| Mace his -lrother. George Smith, has 100
| acres and the decree Of the court only al
I lows George Smith 5000. We have. ap-
praised George Smiths. tract as all worth
S20e an acre. He IS credited by decree of
the court with 5000 and debited with
$4,000. He. must, therefore, give up
$4,000 TO other persons on. the rancho en-
tf:Ied to it. We take $4,000 of his land and
give il TO his btother John. Smith, which
squares John on the books and leaves us
$4,000 worth of George Smiths land
WHICH we can appoEti0n to others
You can readily see that under some
circumstances this plan might work great
hardship to some Of the ranchers, but we
think We can avoid that.
For instance, suppose a man has 100
acres, which we value al 500 an acre, and
on this land hs has built house and barn
and has. made other valuable improve
ments, Our appraisment of his land is
$4,000, but under the decree of the court
! he is only allowed $500. He must give up
$3.50 worth of his land. but in all0ttng
him his $500 worth the referees will see
that he is given the twenty five acres on
which his buildings stand, in Older that he
may not lose his improvements.
''There are several cases in which people
| who have lived ON the rancho for years.
who have houses and barns. lose all under
the decree, These are people who bought
titles from lawyers which the court de-
.cared invalid For instance, the Tewks-
bury estate has collected rents on GOO acres
OF land in the rancho for twelve years.
Under our apDTasement and the decree
Of the court the Tewksbury estate will only
get 1900 acres. Emerc has sued them for
twelve years rent, amounting to several
hundred Thousand dollars. but with that we
have nothing to do. If he collects it, by the
by, all those whose titles are confirmed
under the decree will have an interest and a
share In whatever money is collected:
Take the ease OF Mrs. Woods. who has
lived on the rancho for years. Her hus-
band bought the property and left it to her
when he died. The court decided the title
worthless and of course she had no right on
the rancho. She had about twenty acres.
To save it she went to one of The many peo-
pie who have long bad titles TO portions Of
the rancho but who had never been able to
get possession Of an acre of tire land
until the court decided their title good and
that Of the parties holding the land worth
less. From such person Mrs. Woods buys
ten acres of ground and asks the referee
when they came 30 allot the ground to give
her the value of her ten acres in ground on