The San Francisco call., 1895-12-15

cheap rate. Producers falling to find a markc
for fruits in the fresh form will preserve then
by canning, drying, etc., at home. and this VII
increase empioyments in the country, as wei
as enhance the profit of the producer. TO sur
render the opportunity OF adding something te
the value OF fruit by drying it or canning Il
wisdom which tends 10 impoyerish the cul
tiyator of the soil. Vegetables, as well as
fruits, can be canned and preserved In thai
way for shipment to other markets.
There are benefits TO ensue from the establish.
ment OF free market of an indirect nature
which are too important to be overlooked. The
productiveness of our soil would long ere this
have given us large population If there had
been more profit arising out OF its cultivation
BY the census Of 1890 we had l, ,2SO,0CO in
habitants in California. OF these $40, 900 reside
IN the cities, towns and villages. over l0O,O 900
are engaged in mining and the remainder
may be credited TO agricultural pursuits. The
rich garden lands of our valleys capable oil
subdivision into five, ten and twenty-acre
tracts, and these, under a proper distribution,
one which does not rob the producer for the
benefit of the middle man, would have given
US population of at least one million more
than we now have during our existence as an
American settlement.
I have expended much time, thought ana
energy in trying to establish community life
upon small holdings. In doing so have met
with the constant derision of the large land
holder One of these said to me within the
past year that the man who in California
attempted to make living on twenty acres
uSEdl1y brought up IN the county pOOrnOuSc.
The significance Of this should not escape
attention. single agricultural cultivator of
the soil. with the aid of his family, cannot
take care of twenty acres of land in fruits and
garden stuffs. He cannot take proper care of
ten acres. Now if it be true that the entire
employment of a man and family on land he
cwns is failure, if land must be aggregated
into large holdings and operated by landlord
who employs the labor of men, and if by this
aggregation of land and labor alone profit
ensues in the cultivation of California lands,
then of necessity the State will remain about
as 1t is for the next half-century.
My observation of the experiments that have
been made convinces me that whatever failure
has attended the cultivation of small holdings
is referable entirely to the TACT that the pro-
ducer is not paid enough for his products, but
not because the consumer does not pay enough,
and this latter statement finds daily ample
yerifcation.
The establishment of a free market, there
fore, in San Francisco, while small begin
ming, is the introduction of force which will
have a strong tendency in the direction of
segregating the ownership of the SOIL This
in turn will have tendency to bring to
self-sustaining and prosperous population. The
statistical facts have here presented will in
dicate what will ensue. Ii about 400, 900 peo-
pie in the State OF California are now support
ing an urban population of $4,000 in the
cities and towns, we only need to have 100000
more people in rural employments to give US
87O,0 900 more in the cities and towns.