The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-02
REVIEW OF REAL ESTATE
The Interest in City Property
as an Investment Is
Extending.
PROSPECT OF IMMIGRATION.
Timely Views Upon the Settlement
of the Country Lands of
This State.

The real estate market for the past week
has been progressive. AS repeatedly cited
in these columns, the general interest in
real estate as an investment is steadily
growing and extending.
What might be termed the regular run
of real estate business has been equal in
volume and perhaps more satisfactory to
agents the past week than heretofore. The
majority of the sales are either of resi-
dence lots or of improved residence prop
erty. Some central property and few
acre tracts have changed hands the past
week. The most important sale of inside
property was the southeast corner of Fol-
som and Sixth streets, 50x90, for $50, 900, by
G. H. Umbsen & Co. The Improvements
consist OF a tWo-story frame structure de-
voted to business purposes and renting for
$267 a month.
The loans made and recorded on City
property during the week ending Satur-
day, August 81, amounted to $323,554. The
two most important were 500, 600 for two
years at 6 per cent by the Regents of the
University of California to Sampson Tams
on the property 66:Sx155, on the southeast
line of Market, 100 northwest of Second
street, and $54 900 at go per cent by the
German Savings and Loan Society to John
w. Mcdonald on eight different pieces of
property in the Western Addition and one
piece of wholesale property as follows:
Northwest corner of Devisadero and Eddy,
62:6x100; lot on north line of Vallejo, 125
west of Van Ness avenue, 25x137:6; prop
erty on the west line of Devisadero, 6S %
north of Ellis street, 81 :415x125;
southeast corner of Cough and Green
streets, 2Sx100; property on the south line
of Vallejo, lis east of Cough, 30:2X137 IS;
on the south line of O'Farrell, 125 west OF
Devisadero, 50X137 IS; on the north line of
Sacramento, 100 west OF Sansome, 16:SX
500; at the southeast corner of Post and
Devisadero, 60x112:6, and the southwest
corner of O'Farrell and Devisadero, west
125, south 1877 IS, east %, etc. Other large
loans were: By the regents of the Uni
versity of California to Joan n. G. Hunter,
$780, 900 for two years at 6 per cent on
property on the west line of Grant avenue,
Y south of Bush street, south 104, west
1905, north IS, east 22:11, etc; by
the La Societe Franchise, $4,000 for
one year, at per cent, on property on the
south line of Bush, Il Is west of Hyde, west
66:1, south 117:6, east 1873, ETC.; by the
California Title Insurance and Trust Com
pany, S14 900 Tor one year, at 612 per cent, on
the following parcels of outside lands: On
the west line of Seventh avenue, 225 south
northeast line of D street and Eighth
avenue, north 122;75s, east 40 south
1861 and west 40:2%; and on the north
line OF D street, 1929 east of Eighth ave-
nue., east 81 9-16, north 115:111&, west %,
south 11S:6N; and by the Security Savings
Bank, $4,000 for one year on 65x90, on the
west line of Valencia, 100 south of Twenty
fourth street.
The releases recorded during the past
week amounted to $128,587. Among the
largest granted were: By the German
Savings and Loan Society, $4,000 on
S0x62:6 at the northeast corner of Fifth
and Harrison; by the Hibernia Savings
and Loan Society, SO, 500 on 24x75 on the
west line of Annie street, 65 north of
Eddy, and 25x65:6 on the north line of
Eddy street, 1876 east of Mason; by the
California Safe Deposit and Trust Com
pany, SIC, 600 on 1877 :6x120 at the northeast
corner of Cough and Fulton; and by Alex
ander W. Wilson, $4,000 on 125x70 at the
northwest corner of Fulton and Scott
streets.
SETTLEMENT OF COUNTRY LANDS.
Statistics show that nearly seven-twelfths
of the increase of population to the United
States during the past ten years have con-
gregated in the cities and this tendency to
flock to the city has been increasing for
many decades. The ratio of inequality is
increasing with such degree of rapidity
as to be alarming. It is estimated that
while the population of this country has
increased twelve-fold since the year 1900,
the inhabitants of the cities have increased
ninety-fold. This problem is perhaps more
perplexing in California than elsewhere,
as more than so per cent of this State re-
side in the cities. 1t is claimed that this
excessive proportion of the population of the
city indicates an excess of non-producers.
The fact that the inequality is becoming
greater all the time shows the necessity Of
using every legitimate means of settling
up the available farming lands of the
State. For this reason, if for no other, the
efforts of those land companies which are
inducing immigration from among the
farming classes of other States to come
among us and help US develop the manifold
resources of our country lands by main
tanning Eastern offices and distributing
literature with regard to this State are de-
serving of consideration at this time.
Lloyd Tevis, president of the Kern
County Land Company, the largest organ
ization in the State engaged in the recla-
nation and subdivision of farming lands,
in discussing during the past week the sub
ject of the further settlement of country
lands, said:
The Kern County Land Company has spent
many thousands OF dollars to carry the infOr-
nation into every Eastern hamlet and home
mia farmer is greater than that derived from
the cultivation of the SOL anywhere else in the
United States. For twenty years we have
striyen to build up a thick and prosperous
country settlement on our lands around the
town of Bakersfield.
The times haven't justified the outlay of
means in advertising during the past two or
three years, but with the general resumption
of business all over the country now becoming
apparent immigration to California will be
posi- BILE. The Eastern farmer must be able to
sell al all, il not at reasonable figure, before
he can be induced to look for nome in the
West. Inquiries for prices and market oppor-
tunities have led US to consider methods of
future action. Our gigantic proposition was
not feasible before the advent of the Southern
Pacific Railroad and with the completion of the
San Joaquin Valley line we expect a new i'm
petus to settlement.
We have 325, 900 acres of fertile soil, from
which every pos sible element of chance is re-
moved from agricultural pursuits. To supply
the water needed, the Kern River is tapped
with q large number of canals of varying size,
having an aggregate length of over 800 miles,
with some 1900 miles of leterals by which the
water is distributed. The cost does not exceed
81 80 per acre annually, which is small, to be
sure, compared with the assurance of a large
crop, no matter what the weather may be. No
one IS better prepared to appreciate such a
boon than the Eastern farmer.
Homer Wilson, one of the owners of the
New England colony of Tehama County,
in discussing the question of settlement of
country lands, had the following to say:
Under proper management the successful
az ~ II