The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-01-12
BIG RANCHES.

California has an unfortunate reputation
for big ranches, hich are either idle IN the
hands OF their owners or are only partially
utilized for cattle and sheep raising, or for
the production Oh a large scale of wheat
and wine. The most is never made Of i'm
mense tracts in the hands of one man. He
cannot efficiently manage so much property
and he must be able indeed II he can enlist
the services of others on his behalf anxious
TO bring out such results as he himself
would strive to attain. Big ranches starve
production and scare away popula-
tion. A man of capacity, understand
ing land and agriculture. prefers to
work on his own farm. as soon as possible
be will leave the big ranches, where he only
earns wages and is subject to dismissal at
a moments notice. and where his induce
ments TO marry and bring up q family are
not alluring. But it is the working settler,
the man who will bring Up a family and
cast in his lot with the country he selects.
that this State needs. Fruit farmers who
are cultivatiDg twenty or forty acres;
farmers who are raising wheat or grazing
cattle and sheep On a homestead of one
hundred and sixty acres, provided they
keep cut Of the clutches OF the money
lenders, are doing more pro portionaliy to
build up California in stability than the
landowner who waves his hand over map
and says he owns over a hundred thousand
acres here and more than that there. for
est in the mountains untouched by the AK
and lake or stream unavailable for irri-
CATION. Bring in the population and
divide the land mp" should be the watch
word of rural progress.
1t is understood that the great ranch of
Miller & Lux in Kern County is about to
pass into the hands Of an Eastern and Eng
lis b syndicate at a cost Of 81, 800 600. The
syndicate proposes to divide the ranch up
into holdings of moderate size and to supply
water at a rental from "A lake which will be
sold with the ranch. If 400 families aggre-
eating 2000 individuals can be brought into
Kern County by this change good example
viii have been set to other big ranch re-
giOns. There is no intention to make the
scheme phllanthropic. II is to be on
business basis. The families will have
money or approved credit to carry them
along for year. But it is somewhat for
bidding 10 have an estimate formed that in
ten years the syndicate will have realized
in profits 100000, four times the amount
of the purchase money Such an announce
ment will not operate as an inducement to
settlers. for they win say that the syndicate
is earning much too high a dividend Per
haps the syndicate Is counting its chickens
before they are hatehed, for a settler who
has money will go elsewhere for his home
stead and will secure reasonable terms.
One Of the most pressing wants Of Cali
fornia is 10 see the interior more thickly
populated. Compared with the farmers in
Ohio. Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York
and all over New England, the rancher in
California has much in his favor in climate,
fertility of soil and sunshine enough for
almost every product except strictly trOpi-
cal growths. He has. over great areas of
the State, net to roUgh-hew bis way by
cutting down timber. as in the East and in
Oregon and Washington. The disadvau-
taees of transportation and in having a
sluggish local market will be overcome
some dav. 4 state which has the area OF
France ard IS qsiie tqaal 10 It Ia fertility.