The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-14


State are raised, the farmer has been
counting on this years crop to help him
out of the bad hole the drought of last
year left him in. Half a dozen or more
business men in San Francisco own most
of the wheat land in the valley. They rent
it out on short or long contracts to the
farmers.
If the cereal market is good one year
| then the rent is higher the next year.
| Often the rental price is fixed at such and
such a percentage of the gross or net in
come. Last year was bad one for both
the landlord and the farmer. Whole sec
| tons and quarter sections of wheat and
barley were burned to a crisp before it had
ever grown long enough to make good hay
At the end of the year good many fam
| lilies packed their blankets-which means
in the vernacular, that they left the valley
with blankets and perhaps few household
goods as their only available capital. The
total wheat output for that year was only
$4,000 tons, and so far as the San Joaquin
Valley crop went, only the ranchers who
sowed tracts along the foothills. where
there seems to be subterranean irrigation
or seepage, as the ranchers call it, reaped a
large enough crop to pay their rent.
But many of the landlords were indulgent
enough to renew their leases to the same
farmers, with the understanding that the
back rent should be forthcoming from the
crop of 1895. 1t is rare that two dry seasons
come in succession or that they come any
where near each other in this favored
State.
The farmers of the San Joaquin Valley
and elsewhere the conditions were much
the same-planted again for the crop OF
1895. There was enough rain last winter
and, what was better there were late rains.
The grain all over the State did finely.
Hope came to the farmer. AS he looked
out over his miles of budding wheat and
barley and oats, already breast high,
though just beginning to turn from green
He could see his debts paid and something
left over to begin the new year on. He
had still the railroad rates to fear, but in
the starting of the San Joaquin Valley
road he saw promise of freedom of that
bondage. The Southern Pacific would not
dare increase rates this year, and so
abundant was the harvest that there was
profit for the farmer even at the existing
rates. AS the last year was an off one for
grain surely there would be good prices for
the harvest this year.
So the farmer worked harder and harder
He rose with the sun and only left his
fields when it was dark. And lie sang as
he worked. Next year the schoolhouse
could open, for good crop meant the
luxury of a teacher, for the lacking of
which the schools closed last wear. And
the farmer of the San joaquin was hannv
because the future was bright. He wrote
glowing letters OF the climate, of the won
derful productiveness of the soil. of the
regularity OF the seasons and the absence
OF rain during harvest time to his folks
ana his friends. who still plow the barren
soils OF Vermont or wrestle with the CIV
clones OF Kansas. And he pictured To
hlmself-ln the not distant future-a small
fruit ranch. A dozen acres was his dream =
all ms own, with water rights and no fear
OF the dry seasons. And so the farmer
worked and sang and dreamed.
Meanwhile these San Francisco gentle
men, the members of four wheat-shipping
nrms, mad dreams of their own. Theirs
were no paltry nor earthly dreams-no
dreams SO lowly as that of tilling the soil
or Watchlng wheat tops burst or fruit
ripen on the trees. Theirs were dreams of
Vastness-dreams of millions, and the
power ana the luxury that come with the
millions. They saw chance to fix the
price OF wheat in California. They i'm
proved the chance.
Liverpool is the wheat-selling market OF
the world. To sell your wheat you must
get 1t to Liverpool. You must take it
there IN vessels. If you are a farmer of
course, you sell your wheat before 1t gets
10 Liverpool, before it is loaded for Liver
pool even. But it amounts to lust the
same thing. Whatever the Liverpool
PTlce Is, that fixes the price paid the farmer
ihough from the Liverpool price there is
oeductable the cost of getting the wheat
10 Liverpool. In the end the farmer pays
THIS cost. If it costs only a little to get
Inc wheat to Liverpool then the farmer