Large Farming a Precarious Business.
THE following figures are given by a San Francisco correspondent of a Philadelphia paper, as evidence that farming on a gigantic scale is profitable neither to the country nor to the farmer. He says : "The largest wheat producer in California, or in the world, is Dr. H. J. Glenn. He was formerly from Monroe county, Missouri. He is a man of great enterprise and energy. His ranch lies in Colusa county, and comprises 60,000 acres, nearly all arable land. He has this year 45,000 acres in wheat, which, at a low calculation, will produce 900,000 bushels. His wheat will sell for 85 cents per bushel, or $765,000. Dr. Glenn has been farming ten years, and one would suppose he ought to have a handsome sum to his credit in the bank ; but what with a failure of crops—which occurs two years in every five—and the enormous interest he pays on his loans, he is said to owe a round million of dollars. Last year his credit was bad, as he had no crop. Now, with this splendid crop in prospect he will probably get out. The Dalrimples of St. Paul, who, ten years ago, were the largest farmers of wheat in Minnesota, raising as much as 40,000 bushels in a single year, went to the wall. Another large wheat raiser is D. M. Reavis, whose land lies on the borders of Colusa and Butte counties. He is also from Monroe county, Missouri, and has an unpretending little estate of 15,000 acres, 13,000 of which are in wheat, which, he thinks, will average this year 30 bushels, or 390,000 bushels. He also is hard pressed, and I am told is paying 9 per cent. on a couple of hundred thousand dollars of borrowed money. If farmers raising half a million to a million bushels of wheat cannot get out of debt, it might be well to inquire What is the use of having so much land? The truth is that from the frequent failure of crops in California and the waste that attends on large operations of that kind, farming on a gigantic scale in this portion of the Pacific coast must be considered a failure. North of this, in Oregon and Washington Territory, there is no failure of the harvest, farming operations are carried on on a smaller scale, and consequently the farmers, while not rolling in wealth, are all well to do." —Commercial Reporter, Portland.