The record-union., 1899-09-10
The SMALL FARM
IN CALIFORNIA,

1t would be more accurate, perhaps,
to speak of the large farms OF Callfof-
MIA in this place, for vast areas OF Ter
ritory within the borders Of the state
are held by individual owners ana CUT
tivated in whole or in part Tor the
production of cereals or used Tor the
pasturaee of immense herds OF stock-
But it is the hope of the CahfornlaA
sincerely ambitious for the future well
fare of the commonwealth that these
great tracts of land, wholly unproduc-
tive or devoted to single production,
shall be divided TO the producing ca
pacity of the many rather than the
few. and that unlimited variety of pro-
duction shall test the virility and fruit
fulness of a soil and climate unsur-
passed on the face of the earth.
There is no form of monopoly which
usl1rps the opportunities of men to the
extent attending the monopolized own
ership Of land All values are primarily
derived from the soil. The earth is the
source of all wealth: and while it re-
mains true that labor and skill create
wealth. it is at the same time true that
labor and skill find only in the products
of the earth the opportunity for such
creation.
The products of the mines and the
fields furnish the material upon which
skill and labor are expended. Deprive
labor of this opportunity, and it would
have no field of exercise. Thus, in its
latest and best analysis, the earth is
the source of wealth. The difference.
therefore, between the ownership of
500, 100000 worth of land and the
ownership of an equal value in per-
sonal property is the difference be-
tween the control of a force and the
ownership of an accumulation. In the
first you have the ownership of the
very sources of wealth. In the second
you have simply the ownership of that
which has been abstracted or created.
Land monopoly is, therefore, mo-
nopoly of the opportunity of the right
OF man to life liberty, and the pur-
suit of happiness and safety. The most
conspicuous phase of land monopoly in
the western section of the United
States has developed within the past
thirty-five years. This development
has been due largely TO the fact that
wealth within the period named has
accumulated rapidly; that a large vol
ume of idle capital has been created
and has been amassed by individuals;
that the rate of interest among the
great commercial peoples Of the world
has declined, and very year there has
been a constantly increasing volume of
money ready TO seek investment for
the sake of security alone
In the earliest stages of settlement
in the United States land was the
only superabundant object of private
ownership. and the opportunity which
this country afforded Of such private
ownership attracted to us the popula-
ton and conferred upon US the growth
we have witnessed.
We are fond of believing that our
free institutions brought to our shores
the vast immigration which had its
distinctive rise about the year ISIS
The statistics Of our material progress
have been used to fortify every theory
of fiscal policy. Under any fiscal sys-
tenn the growth we have witnessed
would have taken place. Plenty is a
prolific source of increase of popula-
tion. Upon the broad areas Of fertile
lands lying in the Mississippi, Ohio.
Missouri and Platte Valleys, the young
enter and own a domain as broad and
fertile as that which had conferred
aristocratic distinction on the Barons
and mobiles of the Old World. He could
become a landed proprietor at merely
nominal rate. The value of brooch
on a Iady's bosom would buy a broader
and more fertile area in America than
the great realm of her lord.
The agrarian conditions existing in
California. and the opportunities for
securing land for small farms and fruit
orchards. may be illustrated by the
figures of the acreage held by the
large land owners of the Sacramento
Valley. The four principal counties OF
the Sacramento Valley are Yolo, Co
lusa. Butte and Tehama- They en-
brace an area of SSH square miles, or
5.5O0.000 acres This area comprises
the broad agricultural districts of the
Sacramento Valley. The other counties
within that geographical designation
border upon the bays and certain
large commercial populations, as, Tor
Instance. Sacramento County itself. In
the counties named there were IN
1880 seventy-one holders having o00o
acres each. and upward, and the ag-
gregate of these seventy-one holdings
was 797. .761 acres. In 1885 there were
eighty-five holders having 5000 ana
upward, and the aggregate of their
holdings was 1,130,4S4 acres. In lS9O
there were 106 holders having 3,O0u
acres and upward and the aggregate
was 1.479.104 acres. The Increase in
the aggregate of the individual holdings
of 5000 acres and upward was 100000
acres. Thus there had fallen into this
larger class 100000 additional acres
and the class itself had increased from
seventy-one to 10O.
In the entire Sacramento Valley the
10O largest holdings embrace 1634GoD
acres of land. Ninety per cent. OF 1t at
least is capable of supporting a family
on each 100 acres. or employing the
industry of a single agricultural Guilt
vator with the assistance of his family,
on each fifty acres. Take the larger
figure. however. and the 100 holders in
the Sacramento Valley have 16.o4O
farms Of 100 acres each. The proprie-
torehip Of 100 acres of fertile land un-
der favoring climatic possibilities would
give TO these 100 holdings 16o40 fami-
lies.
The urban population demanded By
these holdings would be more than
double the number of families on the
land Thus $4,000 families are dis
placed in the Sacramento Valley by
the holdings of 100 men. But excluding &