Under this estimate, raw land capable of being irrigated and suitable for growing oranges, may be estimated to be worth $200 per acre. It is not intended to say that such raw land is worth $200 per acre. What is intended is to point out that in finding the value of raw land one should determine the cost of buildings, water rights, and the expense of bringing the trees into bearing, and deduct these items from the value of a bearing orchard.

The influence of yield upon the value of land may be illustrated with the orange crop. Suppose instead of a safe yield of 225 boxes per acre, a yield of twice this amount, or 450 boxes, is estimated, which is a yield not infrequently obtained under favorable conditions. At a dollar a box the area required to return $4000 gross income would be approximately nine acres. As there will be some waste land, let a tract of ten acres be estimated. The cost per acre of water rights and bringing orchard into bearing remaining the same, the following table shows the result:

It will thus be seen that when the income per acre is doubled the value of raw land rises from $200 to $900 per acre. The same result would have been accomplished if instead of assuming a change of yield from 225 to 450 boxes per acre, the price had risen from $1 to $2 per box. By way of emphasis the illustration may be pushed further: Suppose instead of a yield of 225 boxes per acre only an average yield of 150 boxes, worth $1 per box, was obtained. Then to secure a gross return of $4000 would require nearly twenty-seven acres to allow for waste land, assume twenty-eight acres. Estimated as before, the following interesting result is obtained:

In other words, when raw land, capable of returning $450, is worth $900 per acre, and when returning $225 is worth $200, then land that is capable of returning $150 per acre is worth nothing for the purpose of growing oranges under the conditions named.

If 225 boxes per acre at $1.50 per box are assumed, twelve acres of trees would be required. Assuming the purchase of a fifteen acre tract, raw land would, in accordance with the assumptions already made, be worth $435 per acre.

In like manner, accepting these assumptions, bearing orchards of the sizes named, returning an annual gross income of $4000 each, would be worth:

Since this circular is being prepared for the prospective settler, it is assumed that the tract to be purchased will constitute a home as well as a place of business. The cost of a bungalow of the simplest type, therefore, has been included under the head of buildings. Many of the orange and lemon groves of California, however, are without dwellings, being held by the owners as an investment. (See paragraph, A Going Concern.) Even when the owners are not engaged in other business, they often live in nearby towns or villages. Not infrequently there is a dwelling for a foreman or other laborer. The tracts on which owners of homes are located are apt to be twenty acres in extent and yield a gross income of $4000 per year.

Dry Farming.-It has been shown that two hundred acres of land sown annually to barley might bring a gross income of $4000 per year. In the area having an annual rainfall between ten and fifteen inches this result could probably be obtained only by cropping every other year and by the practices known as dry farming. In order, therefore, to obtain an annual income of $4000 per year, four hundred acres of land would be required, so that one-half might each year remain fallow. Assuming $4000 is required for horses, machinery and other equipment, there would be left $12,000 to invest in land possessing suitable buildings, or at the rate of $30 per acre. If buildings are absent then a sufficient sum must be deducted to pay for the buildings. If $4000 is required for buildings, then the land should be purchased at $20 per acre.

A Going Concern.-The dairy farm and the orange grove are illustrations of two very different types of business. In the case of the dairy farm the farmer receives his pay check every month. With the orange grower, payment comes in during a restricted period. On a new dairy farm it will take a year to get the farm under full headway. In the case of the orange grove it will take about five years to bring the trees into commercial bearing; that is, into a condition where it will pay expenses. It may not come into full bearing for ten years. Dairying is a going concern almost from the start, while to secure a successful orange grove it requires many years of waiting which can be afforded only by men who have other sources of income. One of the most important questions to determine in the purchase of a piece of property is how soon it will become a going concern. Some banks adopt it as a policy not to loan except to going concerns. The man who must earn a living through his own labor will do well to invest in an orchard or ranch from which he can get immediate returns, rather than to invest in land which will require years to develop. On the other hand, a man who merely wishes to invest capital may easily spend five or even ten years in developing a business farm enterprise. The fact that relatively few men have capital so to invest gives them a greater opportunity to reap eventually a good return.

Side Issues. It is, however, possible for a man to make himself a going concern by taking up side issues while his orchard is growing. There are two general methods of doing so: one is to grow intercrops in his orchard while the trees are small. The success of this method will depend upon a number of factors, including the kind of fruit, the abundance and cost of water, and market conditions. The other method is to engage in outside work while the orchard is growing. It is a rather common practice in the citrus sections for a man who is starting a grove of his own to care for other groves at the same time; thus a man with a ten or twenty acre tract of his own may have charge of two or three other bearing groves, ranging from five to twenty acres each. It is generally estimated that one man can do the cultural work on forty acres. The considerable number of nonresident owners makes a demand for such services. The smallness of the areas makes the arrangement physically possible.

Diversified Agriculture.-In the illustrations which have been used it has been assumed that only a single crop was being used. In fact, however, many farms do and most farms should raise a variety of products. A diversity of crops helps to conserve the soil, to keep down insect enemies and fungous diseases, and to make possible a more constant and economical use of labor. It may also result in reducing

the area required for a given gross income. Assume an average annual yield of four tons of alfalfa per acre at eight dollars per ton. There would be required 125 acres to produce an income of $4000. It has been shown previously that an alfalfa ranch of sixty acres carrying forty cows may give an equal gross income. Thus in the same way the rearing of cattle, sheep, horses or hogs may considerably modify the area required.

SALE OF LAND

If a person owns a ranch that is profitable he is not generally anxious to sell it. If a man owns a herd of cows and desires to sell some of them he will, if he is a good business man, seek to sell his poorest cows. Lands follow the same economic law. The ranches that come upon the market are apt to be those that have for some economic cause become unprofitable. This may, of course, be due to several reasons. It may be that it is not possible to compete with other lands of greater fertility. It may be that the growth of cities and the development of transportation have made it no longer capable of competing with other areas. It may be due to mismanagement. It may be that changing conditions have made the area too large and that it needs subdivision. However, thoroughly desirable areas may be placed upon the market for various reasons, as through the settling of estates. Frequently splendid areas are brought into the market through the development of new water supplies.

It is a characteristic of California conditions that its soils are what is called "spotted." There may be very poor areas surrounded by land of great fertility. Men who make it a business to buy and subdivide land will find these less fertile areas offered for sale at much less than the ordinary run of land. For this reason, such areas are often chosen for subdivision. Doubtless the men who purchase these tracts for subdivision are not infrequently mistaken as to their real value, or at least do not appreciate the actual difference in productivity between lands of different qualities. An any rate, what the prospective settler should realize is that because he sometimes finds undesirable properties offered to him, that is no evidence that fertile soils do not exist in California. Such soil may exist on the other side of the fence. California is a state of wonderful fertility and almost unthinkable agricultural possibilities, as anyone who wishes may convince himself by proper investigations.

The purpose of this circular, however, is not to dwell upon the great opportunities of the state, but to point out to the prospective settler the difficulties to be avoided, to the end that his success may be made certain.

HARDPAN

Soils should have good depth and good drainage. The need of drainage is hard to appreciate or even determine in areas of limited rainfall before the land is irrigated. One reason why analysis of the soil is of so little value in ordinary practice is that the depth of the soil and the position and character of the hard pan usually affect the productivity of virgin soil to a greater extent than existing variations in plant food. Soils in sub-humid climates are peculiarly prone to possess layers of hard pan. These layers are very irregularly laid down. Hence, a minute examination is required to determine its extent and possible injury on a given piece of land. The United States Bureau of Soils has, on account of these structural differences, adopted the rule of examining a cross-section of the soil to the depth of six feet in western United States, while elsewhere three feet has been deemed sufficient.

DRAINAGE

Without natural or artificial drainage, alkali is the inevitable consequence of irrigation wherever the evaporation from the soil is greater than the rainfall. "Irrigation without proper provision for drainage has, in the past, in very many cases, been the cause of abandonment of lands once abundantly fruitful.''*

Without stopping to go into the matter exhaustively, it may be said. in general, that those lands most likely to be brought under irrigation. are the areas which usually lack good natural drainage. In humid. sections the water table may be within three or even two feet of the surface without injurious results. In arid sections the water table should be not nearer than five feet from the surface, while a depth of six or more feet is desirable. This is due to the deeper feeding area of the roots of plants in arid climates as well as greater danger from alkali where the water table is near the surface. No prediction can be made as to the length of time which will elapse before alkali will appear under irrigation. Clay lands usually suffer sooner than sandy ones. There are areas that have been irrigated for more than twentyfive years which do not yet show the need of under drainage. The purpose of this paragraph is merely to warn purchasers of irrigated land that they may be required to add to the purchase price the cost of tile drainage. A complete system of tile drainage may cost as much as forty dollars per acre, while it is possible that sufficient drainage.

* See article by Dr. Hilgard, entitled "Alkali Lands-Irrigation and Drainage in Their Mutual Relation," in the Report of the California Agricultural Experiment Station for the year 1890.