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Show settlers were poor men auracted by the low price at which farms could be obtained. In eight or Ilmi yars when their farms were doubled or more than doubled in vului they sold out to men with more nion-y. and sometimes many of the.4e niVjrwardH sold at an advansce to make room for a still more prosperous type of farmer. The men who left hi re: did not sell because they could not make a living. liv-ing. Fred Hock, S. H. Thompson, Hi Sherer, II. II. Holdridge and dozens doz-ens of others on the li:-t made good, and from all appearances their successors suc-cessors are doing the same. But not all who left are of this class. Some saw their lands going bad; they could not make enough to hang on until the drainage was installed and their lands redeemed. So they took what they could get and pulled out. Others left because distant dis-tant fields look greenest, and many of this class will continue to bo campers rather than settlers. Some left because of misrepresentations misrepresen-tations about the country. They were told that they could pay for their land in two or three years from the crops they could raise, and other statements wore made about the country equally exaggerated. My own opinion, after ten years observation, observa-tion, is that the unwise advertising of the Delta country by Lloyd Slgler and his land agents did more to damage dam-age It in the eyes of California people peo-ple especially than can be overcome by the Chronicle and Commercial Club combined. Many people mortgaged mort-gaged or sold their California homes to come to some of the poorest land3 In the district. Most of them failed and moved back to California with nothing, and any mention of Delta country to them makes them see red. Now these sales agents had absolutely absolute-ly no interest in the country. They got as commission most of the first payment and that was all they were interested In and they made any sort of representations and promises to' get that first payment. If the land did go back to the company they might get another commission for selling it again. I have in mind a piece of land that has had four different owners or leasers. The first owner tried to raise oats. He got no grain, only a few loads of hay, and he immediately immediate-ly threw it up. The next man tried wheat and the best he could do was ten bushels to the acre and he quit The next man tried barley and he got around 4 5 bushels and a few loads of hay. The next tried fall wheat, but the tumble weeds so choked It out in the spring after the first irrigation that he never did anything more to it. . The fifth man got it last fall. I will be interested in" observing if he gets enough off the place to pay for the fence he has put around it. I have no especial sympathy for this particular man, as he could easily have found out the record of the land, for I believe some of the neighbors neigh-bors would have told him the truth if he had asked. But in a great many cases the buyers were too inexperienced in-experienced to know that they could not make a living from their purchase, pur-chase, and took the word of some agent. All-such cases give the country coun-try a black eye, and there is no excuse ex-cuse for it as there is plenty of first-class first-class land in the district. I understand under-stand that most of this worthless land has since been thrown out of the district. A contributory cause for the departure de-parture of some was the poor schools or short school year. It may seem strange to some people, possibly to the school board, that there are farmers farm-ers who think It Just as Important for their children to have nine months of schooling every year, as that their crops should have Ave or six months of growing weather, but such is the case and some will move away to where they can get these advantages. ad-vantages. Most of the farmers who left moved to California. Probably they are working Just as hard there as the were here, are fighting bugs and weeds just as earnestly, but of a different dif-ferent breed which are never winterkilled, winter-killed, and are emitting loud howls about high taxes. They have their worries the same as everybody eHe. You never hear of the disappointments disappoint-ments and failures of those who move to new pastures; only of the successes and the bright side of life. As to how we can bring settlers to the Delta country and how we can hold them, that is another story. N. B. DRESSER. WHY THEY LEFT A short time ago the Chronicle gave a list of farmers who had left the district within the last few years, and 1he list was by no means complete. com-plete. It was more suggestive than explanatory, and left the reader to decide for himself the reasons for this wholesale exodus. It is all right" to bring such subjects up fcr discussion. discus-sion. You cannot hide unpleasant facts by ignoring them, nor correct unfavorable conditions by keeping silence. Bring them into the limelight lime-light and the facts may be shown to be less unpleasant, and the way to more favorable conditions be found. It is so with the facts about so large an exodus of our farmers. The first and most obvious fact is that for nearly every farmer who sold out and left, seme other farmer bought and moved in. There has been very little if any reduction in the actual number of families in the district. Another' fact is that most of the farmers who moved In had more money to spend than the farmers farm-ers who moved, and more improvements improve-ments have been made. The reason why so many farmers sold out and left is not all discreditable discred-itable to the country. They sold because be-cause the price of farm lands went away up and the owners decided to realize on their investment. Lands that were bought for from $45 to $75 per acre between 1910 and 1915 or 1916 went to from $150 to $250 per acre between the fall of 1918 and the spring of 1920. and it looked like a good time to cash in. Like the man who sells out his stock that cost $92 for $125, taking his profit, rather rath-er than hold it for the Interest it yields. During those years, and especially in 1919, over 20 per cent of the farm lands in Iowa changed hands, and thero are something like 50,000 former Iowa farmers around Los Angeles alone. And Iowa is one of the best farming states In the Union. It has been the same in Idaho and all new settlsi countries. Th first |
