In
The Same Manner The Development Of Irrigation Is Changing The Character
Of Farming In Many Parts Of California.
In the early days fruit-raising
was of the nature of speculation, but the spread of irrigation has
brought it into more wholesome relations.
To irrigate a tract of land is
to make its product certain; but at the same time irrigation demands
expenditure of money, and the building of a home necessarily follows.
Irrigation thus tends to break up the vast farms into small holdings
which become permanent homes.
On land well chosen, carefully planted and thriftily managed, an orchard
of prunes or of oranges, of almonds or apricots, should reward its
possessor with a comfortable living, besides occasionally a generous
profit thrown in. But too often men have not been content with the usual
return, and have planted trees with a view only to the unearned profits.
To make an honest living from the sale of oranges or prunes or figs or
raisins is quite another thing from acquiring sudden wealth. When a man
without experience in fruit-raising or in general economy comes to
California, buys land on borrowed capital, plants it without
discrimination, and spends his profits in advance, there can be but one
result. The laws of economics are inexorable even in California. One of
the curses of the state is the "fool fruit-grower," with neither
knowledge nor conscience in the management of his business. Thousands of
trees have been planted on ground unsuitable for the purpose, and
thousands of trees which ought to have done well have died through his
neglect. Through his agency frozen oranges were once sent to Eastern
markets under his neighbor's brands, and most needlessly his varied
follies for a time injured the reputation of the best of fruit.
The great body of immigrants to California have been sound and earnest,
fit citizens of the young state, but this is rarely true of seekers of
the unearned increment. No one is more greedy for money than the man who
can never get much and cannot keep the little he has. Rumors of golden
chances have brought in a steady stream of incompetents from all regions
and from all strata of social life. From the common tramp to the
inventor of "perpetual motions" in mechanics or in social science, is a
long step in the moral scale, but both are alike in their eagerness to
escape from the "competitive social order" of the East, in which their
abilities found no recognition. Whoever has deservedly failed in the
older states is sure at least once in his life to think of redeeming his
fortunes in California. Once on the Pacific slope the difficulties in
the way of his return seem insurmountable. The dread of the winter's
cold is in most cases a sufficient reason for never going back. Thus San
Francisco, by force of circumstances, has become the hopper into which
fall incompetents from all the world, and from which few escape.
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