The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-10
DIVERSIFIED FARMING,
The Relative Advantages of
Large and Small Hold
ingS of Land.
A Mormon Who Has Supported a
Large Family on Twenty
Acre Farm.

The almost universal cry of the news
papers has been and is now that in our
State there are too many large holdings
''big ranchesn-and greater prosperity
would ensue if they were divided up into
twenty and forty acre farms, each one oc-
cupied by a family.
My observations have shown that he
who can pillow the best is the one who
never did plow he who can hitch up a
team the best is the one who never did
hitch up a team he who can farm the
best the one who never did farm practi-
cally, but did farm theoretically. 1t is i'm
possible to beat such individuals on theo-
ries. Theoretical farmers are always nu-
merous in any State, and they seem to be
abundant in California. The doctrine of
smaller farms is gaining ground in every
agricultural section of the world, and to a
great extent diversified farming must go
hand in hand with small farms.
The Mormons of Utah have been and
are now the most successful with small
farms on the Pacific slope. The president
of their church, Wilfred Woodruff, boasts
of the fact that he has lived comfortably
and supported good-sized family for forty
fCdlS cI q bNcIlbg -dClC idl lie STOWeT
of straw berries in Los Angeles who made
the statement that he paid labor bills of
5000 per acre on his eight-acre farm and
yet made good living has no use for the
diversified farming idea. The hog-raiser
of Tulare County who makes speciality
of breeding fine hogs and sells some OF
his best boars for $500 each, would not be
justified in going into the strawberry
business, but the fine orange growers of
- Il 1o,a
County are sensible in combining their eff
forts to the twenty-acre farms of those
and other products of high and lux
urious grade. The man with two or three
thousand acres must give his efforts to the
production of such staples as can be
sold in the worlds markets.
The southern part of the San Joaquin
Valley is an empire, and lands are so
abundant and cheap that any one who
wants small farm can find plenty of op-
portunities to take his pick. But what
shall he do with his little farm to make
living2 One such place as that put in
vegetable garden will supply any one town
in this part of the valley, and if he under
takes to ship that kind of merchandise the
transportation charges eat his efforts up.
1t does not seem to be a sensible PROPOSE
ton to advocate small farms in this big,
sparsely settled part of our State, and
uOuUllcSS Oblltl COuAtiCo VI our Dig SIaIc
are similarly situated. Some one saws:
1.-THE small farm with its fruit trees and
vines and perpetual meadows rotated with
intense cultivation is the development of
the future
If builders of cities will establish one in
the San Joaquin Valley of half million
population the farmers who live near it
will see that the inhabitants will not go
hungry for any of the food products that
10, lad u L
with no home demand of any consequence,
and with productive capacity in our soil
that astonishes the world, there is no use
in talking about diversified farming and
twenty-acre farms in this section of our
State. The man with small farm on the
outskirts of big city is the most indie
pendent man in the world, providing he
knows how to farm. For anything he raises
the market is near by, but his situation is
not illustrative for rs who are farming in
the big interior counties of our State.
MAJOR G. ]. BERRY.