The record-union., 1893-04-08
THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY.

Our contemporaries are printing an
anonymous petition which purports to
be addressed to the Board of Directors of
the Southern Pacific Company, and which
sets forth as facts certain statements con-
corning the industrial conditions of the
Sacramento Valley. After giving the
statistics Ct population as shown by the
census of 1890, and reaching the conclu-
sion that the actual loss for the entire
valley in the ten years is $50, the petition
proceeds to say that the lands of the val
ley are less productive for wheat-growing
than formerly; that the price of wheat
has steadily declined and has reached a
point near the cost of production; that
the taxable value of the land has in
creased largely, with no corresponding
decrease in the rate of taxation: that
there has been no change in rates of
transportation since 1880, either to or
from the seaboard; that there has been a
falling off in the products of the farm;
that the farmers are adding to rather than
diminishing their mortgages; and these
anonymous petitioners say: 1--WE be-
lieve the landholder stands ready to sub
divide and sell at fair rate'; they fur
Their proceed to declare that everywhere
there are to be found cheap, good lands
on the market; and they ask conference
with the Southern Pacific Company in
regard to these matters.
We sincely hope that the conference
will be held, and we are extremely glad
that the people of the Sacramento Valley
have at least opened their eyes wide
enough to see the exact condition which
surrounds them. For ten years the pop
ulations have been decreasing. The total
gain in the counties which have gained is
2,0lS, and all and more of this gain is at
tributable to a few cities like Sacramento.
Woodland, etc. The population of the
city of Chico fell off; but all the gain was
in the cities; none of it in the country.
The country has been depopulated, and
the condition described and summarized
herein shows clearly why. The price of
wheat has steadily declined. The pro-
ductive capacity of lands for wheat-grow-
ing has declined. There has been fall
ing off in the quantity of products of the
farm, But within the period of ten years,
from 1880 to 1890, capital went into the
Sacramento Valley and bought up the
lands. This is thoroughly well known to
everyone residing in the valley. There
are estates in the vicinity of Colusa and
Red Bluff that have grown constantly
larger. There are hundreds of houses in
the valley standing idle and empty to-day
which were formerly occupied by small
landholders; but the large landholder
ran him out of the country. AS the hold
ing becomes large, the productiveness of
the land declines. But the merely large
holding of land is not the worst feature
of the situation. The large landholder
is an enemy of progress. He is an enemy
to civilization, and the sooner the world
recognizes this fact the better it will be.
Some enterprising men, like Will S.
Green of Colusa, seeing the condition
approaching which is described by the
petitioners, attempted to make it pos
sible to do other kinds of farming than
wheat raising. They. therefore, under
the provisions of the Wright law, intro
duced the establishment of an irrigation
district, taking in some of the most fer
tile lands of Glenn and Colusa Counties.
But they encountered the opposition of
the large landholder. They incurred the
enmity of such holdings as that of the
late Hugh J. Glenn, which is repre-
scented by an attorney at Chico, who in
terposed all the objection in his power
Eventually the large landholder secured
the disincorporation of the Central Irri-
cation District. Wheat-growing has
become Improbable, Notwithstanding
which the large landholder was deter
mined that no other kind of growing
should take its place.
The people of the Sacramento Valley
their choice between eventual stagna-
80, and resistance to the large landholder,