The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-03
Horace Davis FavorS Small
Holdings and Diversified
Farming.
MORE SKILL AND MORE PROFIT.
An Interesting Study of Crops, and
- the Changes the Years Have
Brought.

years with the grain and milling interests
and close student of affairs economic Mr..
Davis is well equipped for fair judgment
upon this topic.
"What is the outlook ?'' says he. First,
the wheat yield of the State is apparently
diminishing. Taking the crops from 1878
to 1893 inclusive, sixteen years, the first
eight years averaged 1,OS4,531 tons per
annum, the last eight years averaged
I,043 $50 tons-a falling off of 4 per cent.
l am we'll aware that two exceptionally
bountiful years, 1880 and 1884 came into
the first eight years, but we must remem-
Der that during the last eight years the
population has increased largely, and over
1000 miles OF railroad have been built,
opening up many square miles OF fresh
soil, not only without any corresponding
increase IN wheat production, but with
actual diminution.
mo, the trouble is wheat does not paw.
With the increase of Indian shipments TO
England wheat fell, beginning in 1888, to a
general level of 81 25 TO 81 40 per Genital
here, at which price there ceased to be
much profit in it, even with the best farm
ing machinery, and the influx from
Argentina has now brought it down to
actual cost Of raising. Other products of
the soil pay better, and wheat farming is
being abandoned, at all events till wheat
becomes profitable.
Now, We need about 500, 600 tons for the
yearly requirements of the State, exclusive
of its European shipments; that is, for
our own food, and seed, and feed and our
regular flour trade in the North Pacific
Ocean, which amounts to about 500, 600 bar
rels annually. All We raise over this
500, 900 tons must find market in Europe.
and this makes the price of the rest.
What. then, Is the chance of better
prices in Europe? In January, 1882, wheat
was 10 shillings and pence per Genital in
Liverpool. From that time it has steadily
declined, till il is worth less than shill-
iDgs to-day, and yet the worlds supply
has steadily increased so that the visible
stocks on January, 1894, were larger than
were ever known before. Forty years ago
the wheat consumed in England was raised
mainly on her own soil, and most of her
imports were raised on high-priced land BIZ
well-Paid labor, earning good wages, in
gold: Since then the conditions have
changed greatly, and now a constantly in
creasing proportion of her supply comes
from cheap land, titled by cheap labor,
paid in silver or paper currency. The
English farmer goes to the wall he cannot
stand up against India, Chile and Argen-
tine. Who goes next?
1--WE cannot stand it long against the
present odds, and must turn TO other uses
for our land. Wheat export is the resource
of new community and of wasteful farm
ing. grieve TO see the State wearing out
its soil to give cheap bread to Europe. and
every new product that can be raised profit
ably. gives me new satisfaction. Smaller
holdings with diversified farming is the
Indispensable condition of prosperity here.
And l look forward to the time when this
huge bulk of wheat shall be cut down to
one-half, and for it we shall substitute a
hundred different products requiring more
labor. more skill, more industry, and re-
turning US more profit and greater pros
perity."
Mr.. Davis has said all this and much
more.in an instructive and entertaining
essay printed recently in the Journal of
Political Economy of the University of
Chicago. Here he reviews the history of
California as wheat producer Tor forty
years and tersely comments upon the fea-
lures of that interesting epoch. 1T was
at the urgent request of Professor Adolpn
Miller of the University OF Chicago, a Cal
-ltornlan. that / wrote that pamphlet n,said
Mr.. Davis yesterday. 81 spent much time
and labor in getting at the exact facts ard
put them in the most condensed form for
general reading. The tables and charts
show at glance the ups and downs of the
wheat-groWlng industry; they show how
products and prices have fuctuated by
reason of rainfall, how wars and drought
elsewhere have disturbed our market.
But they don't show, and l could not
OSSAh " tS4l Tic OOIISStlC FEATURES
which should properly be included in a
history of our wheat industry for forty
years. That would include the history of
many so-calIed deals of the big specuia-
tions undertaken by men like Isaac Fried
lander, and down to the recent corner at
tempted IN the interests OF the late Senator
Fair. 1t would tell of the ups and downs
of many merchants now passed away; of
the excitements of '5S, of '64, of 20; of the
time when Chile wheat came pouring in to
flood our markets; of how wheat that was
selling as low as 81 % a GENITAL in '6I ran
up to 8 cents.a pound, and then 5 cents,
and -four in April, 1865, brought $15 and
SIC barrel.
''Its stirring history, and some dey 1
hope to write it all, experimenting this
paper I've written recently by adding the
personal and biographical features of the
men who have made and lost fortunes in
our wheat market
The history of California as a producer
may. be divided into three periods, saws Mr..
Davis IN beginning his essay. each dis
tlnctly marked by its main product: First,
the eighty years from 1869 to 184S, when
she was stock-raiser; then the mining
period, say to 1860, which year marked the
time when she entered the lists as a large
exporter of breadstuffs. Her maximum
yield in this line seems now to have gone
by, and she is entering upon a new condi-
tion, where she finds more profit in fruit.
wines and oil; more stable and perma-
nent form of civilization. Her history as
a grain producer is so remarkable that il
deserves to be recorded before it has faded
from our memories.
Her isolated geographical position, sepa-
rated as she is from her sister States by
high mountains on the north, and desert
: belt on the east, makes it possible to treat
her products and her trade by themselves.
at all events until the building of railroads
land even after that time, it is easy to esti-
mate the imports and experts across the
STATE line), and they should be so treated.
because her climatic conditions are quite
Independent of her neighbors, and the fact
ors that make bountiful crop in Califor-
MIA do not operate either in Oregon or Ari-
iona.
AS viewed in the perspective OF history,
this trade is not dry record of statistics:
it is full of rapid changes, Astounding in
situations marvellous and even picturesque,
presenting group of scenes of wonderful
variety and interest In the infancy of the
settlement we have the old padre teaching
. his Indian neophyte to guide the rude
homemade plow, little better than the
branch of tree, as he scratched the sur