The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-21
Past, Present and Prospective
Values of Country
Realty.
OPPORTUNITY FOR SETTLERS
Profits of the Orchard, Vineyard
and FieId-Dried and Canned
Fruit Exports.

look in this direction. But something
more than general information is requisite
before the man of family, with only mod
crate amount Of money, feels warranted in
breaking up his home to come west, where
conditions are quite new and altogether
different. People, as rule, before letting
go the surroundings and occupations into
which they have grown, and with which
they are familiar, endeavor to settle on
some definite plan to be taken up on
reaching the new section of country to
which they are drawn. Such plan can be
intelligently made only after special and
practical information has been obtained.
In seeking home in different country,
among new people, surrounded by new
conditions, sentiment is of little value,
matters of practical everyday life are the
first consideration. To live in a location
where the climate IS almost a continuous
delight; where the range of production is
as wide as the most exacting critic could
wish; where life, in comparison with eX-
perience in a very considerable portion of
the East, is made easy, not to say Iuxu-
rious, while much to be desired, is after ali
less important in some ways TO the average
homeseeker than to learn of the opportu-
mites for making a comfortable living after
reaching the new location.
So large portion of California presents
peculiar advantages in the way of produc-
tions it is unwise to make comparisons or
claim for any one district superiority that
entities it to conspicuous prominence. To
new settlers location is often largely mat
ter of accident, more frequently, perhaps,
pecuniary conditions.
For many years intending settlers have
been appalled, at the prices of land in Cal
ifornia. Comparatively the prices asked
for land in this State were, until quite re-
Gently, higher than the rates demanded
elsewhere west Of the Mississippi River.
Immigrants had their choice between Da-
kota, Minnesota, Colorado, Nebraska,
Kansas and Texas, where farming land
was selling from SO to SIS per acre as
against California, where good farming
land was held at from SIS to $50 and $50 an
acre. 1t is needless to add they chose the
former localities. A very different COM
parison OF land values could be made now.
Out of the failures and financial depres-
sion of the past two years there has been
evolved a new scale of prices. OF these
the general impression is they are at bed
rock. There is no such thing as inflated
values; boom prices are things of the
past.
The figures asked for land in California
are everywhere the most reasonable, and
defy competition from any source or Sec
ton of the Union when one takes into con-
sideration the incompatible climate and
the character and variety of the produc-
tons of the soil. 1t is always to mans
advantage to purchase anything outright
and not buy on the installment plan, but
there are thousands of happy and thrifty
homes in California to-day secured on one
of the many favorable plans offered to poor
men. The terms of payment are such that
about all that is required now to get a foot
hold is to be an able-bodied man. In every
section of California there are lands for
sale on condition of improvement. The
purchaser is required to build house and
plant so much in fruit trees or vines, or
cultivate a certain number of acres for five
or six years. Then he must make pay
ments on the land Now and then man
starves out, but the rule is otherwise. The
reader may have heard of the one who has
failed, and never thought of the nine in
possession of nice little farm.
There is another feature of land values
in this State. It's valuation up to this time
has been largely upon its capacities for pro-
ducing wheat, cattle, sheep and hogs.
Land purchased at $40 per acre developed
with the production of cereals and stock
characteristic of the interior valleys a short
time ago might have developed value of
$50 per acre. If so, there would have been
an enhancement of 800 per cent of the orig
inal purchase price. With the new culture
which is now being realized through a
knowledge OF the possibilities of our
climate and irrigation, viz, the division of
grain and stock ranches into fruit farms,
this same property is made worth, per-
haps, $500 per acre, an increase of 1000 per
cent.
Because of better transportatiOns facili-
ties, both local and overland, destined soon
to be accomplished facts, and because our
vineyardists, orchardists and farmers have
been educated to fully comprehend the adj
vantages of irrigation and good culture,
the value and demand for our farming
lands is certain to increase.
1t is owing to the fact that there are no
summer rains that California produces the
finest fruits Of all kinds belonging to the
temperate and semi-tropic zones. It is
only rain that prohibits the growing of
wine and raisin grapes in the States Dor
dering the Gulf of Mexico. 1t is the abb
sence of summer rain that gives California
a monopoly of apricots, cherries and
prunes. The wonderful success attending
the growing of sugar beets is consequence
of our climate, to which is due the high
saccharine quality of the vegetable. The
sugar-beet industry, at present confined
mostly to the Salinas Valley, has sprung
into great prominence through the efforts
Claus Spreckels, who erected great works
and refneries for the manufacture of beets
into sugar. He induced hundreds of farm
ers to engage in the industry, and they
have realized very handsome profits. The
raisins grown in the San Joaquin Valley,
and especially in Fresno County, are equal
to the finest products of Malaga.
In Spain five tons of grapes are required
to produce one ton of raisins; in California
three tons of grapes will yield one ton of
raisins. Citrus fruits, principal among
them being the orange and the lemon, are
grown in the southern part of the State
and the middle of the northern half with
great success and profit. In nearly all parts
Of the State these frujtS will grow and bear