ne hundred and sixty acres were
sold to each family, at a price of from $40 to $50 an acre. Each family
pays down $400 and should pay to the company 60 per cent a year of the
first, second, and third years' crops, it being understood that the
remaining 40 per cent would remain in the hands of the settler for the
support of his family. But during the first year it developed that the
company took out of that 40 per cent the interest on the mortgages and
the taxes on the land, so that very little was left for the cultivator.
The next year the settlers left the land, worked on neighboring farms
for another year, and then returned to Los Angeles. Some families had
lost $400, some $700--practically all the money they had saved or borrowed.

Again, fifteen families made a contract with a company near Fresno,
California. Forty acres were sold to each family at $115 per acre, with the
privilege of water for irrigation on the stipulation that the company would
receive half of the market value of the crops. The company promised to lend
seeds and implements. Several of the families had come from Mexico to
escape revolutionary disturbances there, bringing implements, horses,
cattle, etc. When they arrived they had to borrow seeds and provisions for
the support of the families. The company furnished these on a chattel
mortgage at 7 per cent. But the company was not able to provide irrigating
water, so the settlers, after two years of fruitless effort, had to leave
the land, losing all their mortgaged personal property. Some families lost
$700 in cash, some lost $1,000, and some even more.

Later, twenty families made a contract with a land company for the
purchase of farms varying in size from twenty to forty acres, at a price
of $120 per acre. To be cautious, the peasants sent out only seven
families. The company promised to provide either a tractor or horses,
implements, seeds, and water, and was to receive one fourth of the
crops. But it turned out that the company was not able to furnish water.
During two years the settlers tried to make good, but did not succeed,
the lack of water being the main cause of failure. One family lost $700,
another $820, and the others lost about the same amount each.

Another group of twenty families made a contract with a company in the
same neighborhood. Fifty acres were sold to each family at $120 per
acre. The company agreed to provide two horses for each family and all
necessary implements, and