Moving to California by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 27.

Moving to California.

By Editor

WE are receiving more letters asking for advice in regard to moving to California than we can possibly answer. We did ask friends to correspond with us if several families wished to settle together, having some means. But none of the letters thus far received meet the case. A brother in San Diego County, who wishes to devote himself to the work of God, has a ranch of some four hundred acres, with water on it, suitable for stock, fruit, and bees; not for grain; can be divided to accommodate several families.

Some write to us that they are poor—dependent on their hands for their living. People who expect to rent and live on day labor should not think of coming to this State. Rent is high, and work very uncertain. Some wish to know about small fruit farms. In good fruit districts land can be bought for from $150 to $300 per acre, unimproved; that is, without any trees or fruit upon it. Planted to fruit it is very much higher.

In regard to those sections where irrigation is necessary, there is much uncertainty at present. By a recent decision of the Supreme Court, irrigators who take their water from running streams are left pretty much at the mercy of those claiming "riparian rights." It is a shame to our civilization and to our Government that England, with its streams and heavy rains and dense fogs, should give laws to California which make a desert waste of millions of acres of land, which literally "blossom as the rose" if freed from the deadly influence of those old laws and customs. Taken all together we advise our friends to be very cautious about moving to California.