The record-union., 1892-06-03
WEAK BACKED B0OHS.
Why So Many Of Them Fail Here
in California.
Mistaken Methods of the Boom Pro-
moters-They Are Too Much
of the Cinch Order.

Travelling Correspondence REcoRD-UNIoN.l
VALLEY SPRINGS, June lst.-''A
boom must have a backbone These
were the expressive words used by
farmer of Jackson Valley in referring
to the necessity for an irrigation system
for the successful settlement of the Pico
grant. | thought he expressed truth
OF very general application, as my mind
referred to many instances where the
death of booms could be traced to the
terrible spinal disease of misrepresenta-
ton.
A party has tract of land for sale, and
naturally is most anxious to dispose of
the parts least desirable. When a sus-
ceptible victim appears from a country
where one section of land is about like
another, and comes with an idea that it is
good thing to get land in California, and
get it as cheap as he can, he makes him a
special rate that proves more attractive
at the time than the land does at the end.
So soon as the trade is made our
boomer looks out for another.
In the meantime the settler proceeds to
revolutioniZe agriculture by the use of
Eastern methods, and soon reaches a
state of mind where he becomes an en-
thusiastic advertiser among his friends
to whom he writes and can influence
against California and all her people.
After becoming thoroughly discouraged
he spends his time seeking a buyer by
sitting around town to make the ac-
quaintance Of newcomers. Should he be
so fortunate as to meet one he is very
careful TO show him how utterly worth
less is the land he proposed to buy, and
how cheap he will sell him his good farm,
After meeting three or four Of these enter
prising gentlemen, the customer would
not buy place i'll that locality under
any consideration.
one OF the most public-spirited men in
Northern California gave torcible eX
preston to this condition of affairs in his
vicinity by saying: If you sell man
land in our country you must sell it by
moonlight"
The other day I visited colony where
the conditions of soil and management
were such that l felt certain every one
who failed to secure profitable outside
employment would lose his place. Not
many days after the promoter Of the sub
division told me how well he had man
aged to get rid of the poorest part Of his
ranch and get enough in money or inn
prUVem1ntS so that those places that came
back into his hands would bring more
than was due on them.
At the same time the adviser of the
colony was not practical man. There
were none successfully conducting their
line of business in the immediate Vicin-
ity, and there seemed no prospect Of their
learning how to make The best of their
condition.
The effects Of this smart stroke ofpOlicy
were to prevent the sale OF the balance Of
the tract and Darricade the development
of the section. The boom needed two
bacilbones. In the first place, land for
subdivision should Ue adapted by nature
and location to some profitable form OF
intensive farming. and should be sold at
intu noe to bring friends
In the second place the promoter Of
any colony enterprise should arrange for
the presence in the community OF those
competent to win success under existing