WHERE THE RAILWAY LANDS ARE.

361

The rent must always be paid in coin, and in advance. Railroad Lands.-Lands granted by Mexico, lands which have been sold by the United States, or pre-empted or taken by homestead, in accordance with law, before the railroad title attached, and lands which have been reserved as mineral, are not "vacant Federal lands" as that term is used here, and do not pass to the company.

The lands given to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company by Congress, extend from San José, by way of Gilroy, Hollister, San Benito Pass, Huron, Goshen, Tehachapi Pass, Los Angeles and San Gorgonio Pass, to Fort Yuma, and also from Tehachapi Pass, eastward to the Needles, on the Colorado river.

The San Francisco and San José Railroad has been incorporated with the Southern Pacific Railroad, having been constructed on part of the route before the bill granting the franchise and land to the latter road was passed.

The land-grant from San José to Fort Yuma is 690 miles long, and covers all the unreserved odd sections within thirty miles of the road on each side. It would not take more than twenty miles from the road if all had been unreserved; but portions of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito, Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino and other counties were held under Mexican grant or were otherwise reserved from the company, which will not get the full 12,800 acres for each mile, even by going to the full distance of thirty miles from the road.

The railroad grant on the section between San José and Tres Pinos, fifty-one miles long, covers nearly all of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, parts of Merced, Fresno and Monterey, and small portions of Alameda, San Joaquin and Stanislaus. Most of these lands, however, were previously covered with Mexican grants, or were otherwise legally occupied, and the company has little land for sale in those counties, and most of that little is in the mountains, and at present difficult of

access.

It should be understood that the railroad companies, except perhaps in Texas, have no mining lands to sell. These are all

carefully reserved by the United States government, and where land which had been patented to them, proved to be mineral or mining land, before they had sold it, the government claimed it and has given them other lands in the place of it.

The mining laws and regulations, which we have given in full in a previous chapter, explain fully the only methods of procuring mining lands direct from the government. There is nothing to prevent an immigrant from buying an interest in a mine, and in the land in which or under which it is situated, from those who hold it, but an interest in a mine is not necessarily an interest in the land above it. A bill now before Congress provides that land may be sold in tracts containing eight square miles or less, for grazing purposes, subject to the condition that if a mine passes underneath it, the rights of the miners shall not be prejudiced by this occupancy of the surface.

We have alluded in previous chapters to the opportunities which are often offered to buy partially improved farms and cattle or sheep ranches. This opportunity occurs so frequently that the immigrant who has two or three thousand dollars of capital will often find it better to purchase one of these farms, than to take up new land by any of the methods offered in this chapter. It is not at all to the discredit of the fertility, climate, or productiveness of any of these States or Territories that so many farms should be for sale. The causes which lead to it are usually these: a man with very little capital has taken up a farm or sheep or cattle ranche, either by pre-emption or under the Homestead or Timber-Culture Acts, or has bought of the railroad lands, and being perhaps not a good manager, or having a large family and meeting with misfortunes in his crops, finds himself in debt, and unable to extricate himself and keep his farm. Perhaps he has bought too much land, and the cost of breaking it up and his annual payments on it swallow up all he can make, and he becomes discouraged. He will find that if he mortgages his land, the interest will eat up the whole value of the farm, and, being sold out under foreclosure, he has nothing left, and has to hire himself out as a laborer. If he can sell the farm, the payments yet to be made can be met by the purchaser, and though

BUYING PARTIALLY IMPROVED FARMS.

363 he receives less than he has expended in money and labor upon the land, yet he is out of debt and can move on to the frontier where, taking a farm under the Homestead Act or Timber-Culture Act, and building a sod house, he can have a better chance to retrieve his fortunes. Meanwhile, the immigrant who buys finds the land ready broken for crops, and perhaps the crops for the season sown, so that within four or six months he can, if the season is favorable, realize from his crop nearly what the farm has cost him.

These farms can generally be bought at a reasonable price, because there are so many in the market. They should not be bought at a high price for two reasons: first, that in most regions there is some uncertainty about the crop from drought, grasshoppers, Colorado beetles, worms, or excess of rain; and second, that the first crop, especially of grain or roots and tubers, is usually larger than those which succeed it.

By caution in buying, the immigrant will generally do well, and by careful and thorough cultivation he may find his partially improved farm a source of great wealth.

CHAPTER VI.

FARMING LIFE-THE AMOUNT OF CAPITAL NEEDED-MANAGEMENT OF A FARM AT THE WEST-THE BEST FARMING REGIONS-WHAT CROPS ARE BEST-How FARMING CAN BE MADE MOST PROFITABLE.

HAVING in previous chapters shown the immigrant how to reach the West, how to select his land or location, and the various methods by which he may become the owner and possessor of a farm or other landed estate, we are now ready to assist him in settling upon his land and making his first crops. In the case of immigrants from Europe this is particularly necessary; for though it is very possible that the immigrant may, in his own country, and under the circumstances existing there, be as good a farmer as can be found, yet the circumstances here are so different in the character of the soil, the climate and sea

sons, the amount of rain-fall, and the crops most in demand, that he will find that he has much of his business to learn anew.

The first thing to be decided is, what description of crops he would prefer to cultivate, and this point should be settled before he sets out for the West, whether his previous home had been in Europe or in the Atlantic States. If he desires to raise the small grains, and perhaps root crops, he must still decide whether he will grow winter or spring wheat and rye. For spring wheat and the other small grains, as well as for root crops, there is no region so good as Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, and perhaps Iowa and Southern Dakota, east of the Rocky Mountains, and Washington and Oregon west of those mountains. The spring wheat of Montana surpasses that of any other part of the world. In an average season it weighs sixty-nine pounds to the busha', sixty pounds being the standard, and with ordinary care in cultivation thirty-five to forty bushels to the acre, many entire crops exceeding this large yield. Dakota and Minnesota and Oregon and Washington Territory are not far behind. Iowa grows

some winter wheat, though the spring wheat largely predominates; but, probably on account of less thorough cultivation, neither the yield nor the weight are equal to those of the northernmost tier of States and Territories. There is one other reason alleged for the excellence of the grain crops of this northern region, which includes the fertile valley of the Red river of the North; it is that the surface frost thaws very early in the spring, but that at the depth of three and one-half or four inches the earth is still frozen, and that when the seed is sown this deeper frost, thawing gradually, keeps the roots of the grain moist and develops them more moderately and surely than can be done in any other way.

There is this further advantage in regard to Northern Minnesota, Dakota, and Eastern Montana, that the crops can be quickly and cheaply marketed over the Northern Pacific and its

* For all this northern region spring wheat is a very certain crop, winter wheat an exceedingly uncertain one. During the long and severe frosts, the roots of the winter wheat are frozen, or winter-killed, and in many instances it does not recover its vitality. Some winter wheat is sown in Minnesota, Northern Dakota, and more in Iowa, but it proves very nearly a failure, while the spring wheat yields from twenty-one to forty bushels, or even more, to the acre.

WINTER WHEAT, MAIZE AND SORGHUM.

365 branches, and that they can be sent to Europe direct, and will ordinarily bring largely remunerative prices there. Root crops of all kinds yield enormously over the whole of this region. The immigrant who wishes to preserve this abundant productiveness of his lands, should do two or three things which very many of the farmers there do not do; he should plow deeply; the soil is from five to ten feet, or even more, in depth, and will yield continuous large crops, if the ground is plowed to a depth of from eighteen inches to two and a half feet, but this should be done in the fall, and with a thorough harrowing, in the spring the soil will be in fine condition for a crop. He should rotate his crops, not after the five years' plan adopted in England and on the continent, but, perhaps, one year of grain, one of root crops, and one of clover, Alfalfa, Hungarian grass or millet, thus allowing the constituents withdrawn from the soil to be replaced. He should also keep horses and mules for his work, oxen and cows, sheep and swine, and though it is a general matter of belief with the settlers on these new lands that they need no manuring, he will not find his crops at all diminished, if he uses upon his lands all the manure, liquid as well as solid, produced by his animals, and he can consume a part of his crops at home, and turn them into products which will pay him better than to sell them direct.

If our immigrant prefers to raise winter wheat, Indian corn, sorghum (though the early varieties of the sorghum will do well almost to the Canada border, while the latter and larger varieties yield more bountifully in the central belt), he will find Southern Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Wyoming his best region east of the Rocky Mountains, and Northern and Central California, some districts of Nevada, Utah and Western Colorado, west of these mountains. Here, too, most of the root crops, and many special crops, such as the castor-oil bean, pearl millet, Egyptian rice corn, sweet potatoes, alfalfa, and Hungarian grass do well. Especially can we commend Kansas and Nebraska and Eastern Colorado for the winter wheat and Indian corn crops, among the States and Territories east of the Rocky Mountains. But we must caution immigrants, even in these States, that they should not press forward beyond the line of