1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 361 Land Law

Since California's Central Valley has been under planned development since its development, the farmland, orchards and farms in California's Central Valley are arranged very regularly and look very comfortable.

California, and even the entire eastern and western United States, is vast and sparsely populated.

In terms of the cultivated land currently developed in California, it accounts for less than 5% of the arable area in the country.

According to California’s Agricultural Land Ordinance of 1851.

For each immigrant who chooses to engage in agricultural production, the California government will allocate 20 acres (121.40 acres) to 80 acres (303.51 acres) of agricultural land for free.

The specific allocation depends on the fertility of the land and the remoteness of the location.

If it is land in the suburbs of San Francisco or the suburbs of Stockton, each person can only be allocated a maximum of 20 acres.

If it is a wasteland undergoing development, it will be distributed at a rate of 80 acres per person according to the highest standards.

However, with the improvement of agricultural development in California, there is very little idle land in the suburbs of medium and large cities. New immigrants are more likely to get 80 acres of uncultivated agricultural land.

The per capita cultivated land area is high, which is the advantage of fewer people and more land.

In fact, the land grant area under California's Agricultural Land Act is already a very low standard in the United States.

The federal government's "Land Order" of 1785 and the "Northwest Order" of 1787 stipulated that the minimum land area for sale was 640 acres, and there was no upper limit on the maximum area.

Even in the Degree Act promulgated in 1854 and the future Homestead Act promulgated in 1862, the minimum land area standard for sale is still 40 acres, which is higher than the minimum standard of 20 acres in California's Land Code.

In other words, according to American law, if you want to annex land indefinitely, it is theoretically possible.

But theory is theory and practice is practice. In fact, the feasibility of unlimited land annexation in the United States is very low.

In addition to progressive payment of local taxes based on the size of the land occupied, if the land exceeding the legal limit cannot be sold within 30 years, the land held will be sold at the lowest price, which is 12.5 cents per acre.

It can be seen from the laws issued by the U.S. federal government over the years that the U.S. federal government encourages the reclamation of wasteland to increase land value and encourages the circulation of land assets, but it does not encourage land annexation.

To become rich by holding a large amount of land, unless you can buy high-quality land in major cities like the Astor family and wait for the price of these lands to skyrocket within 30 years, it will still be difficult to become a top rich man simply relying on land.

Although California's land grant standards are already very low, many immigrants, especially Chinese immigrants, are very satisfied with the existing land grant standards.

In the Qing Dynasty, not to mention the 20 acres of land donated to each person, even if one household owned 20 acres of land, they were considered small landowners in the village.

California's land grant standard was the standard for a medium landowner in the Qing Dynasty.

Since the amount of land donated is enough, it is already very difficult for one person to take care of 20 acres of land. Therefore, there are few farmers who want to make themselves uncomfortable and annex other people's land.

Of course, California law also limits land annexation.

Currently, California, like many states in the Midwest, does not levy property taxes on land.

But this is conditional. If the land is held below 80 acres, no tax will be charged. If the land exceeds 80 acres, the land tax will be levied on a progressive basis for the portion exceeding the standard, and the land will not enjoy the government's agricultural subsidy policy.

Therefore, many California farmers are stuck with the standard land holding of 80 acres at most, and rarely choose to hold land exceeding 80 acres.

As for those farms with more than a thousand acres of land, they are not privately owned, but are collective farms formed voluntarily by many farmers in order to reduce the risks of planting and management. Some farmers also choose to join the farm to raise funds to purchase expensive agricultural machinery and livestock.

Used to reduce planting costs.

In fact, the land allocated to each person in the farm does not exceed California's land holding standards.

Liang Yao stepped off the train and saw a group of naughty kids riding ponies and leading dogs, shouting vulgar words such as Fake, Buda, Puma, Selinmu, and Sanunet.

Fighting near the station.

These naughty children should be the children of nearby farmers.

Passing through the group of brawling children, Liang Yao saw a steam tractor parked in a wheat field not far away.

The appearance of the steam engine is very rough and has a primitive beauty.

It gave Liang Yao the impression that the miniaturized Pioneer locomotive had been directly moved to farmland after some modifications.

Many farmers had already gathered around this neat tractor, watching it curiously.

Liang Yao couldn't help but get closer and take a closer look at the tractor. The cab did not exist at all. There was an open platform at the rear of the tractor for the driver to stand and control the steering wheel.

As for sitting down and driving, it is impossible. The front of the locomotive blocks the view. If you sit down and drive, you will have no vision at all.

According to the introductions of Walter, Pratt, Whitney and others, gears, reversing, and precise speed control are simply fanciful things.

Once the tractor is started, it can only travel at its own speed. The only things the driver can intervene are the direction of travel and the brakes of the steam tractor.

Early steam engine machinery basically competed with livestock. For example, early steam trains competed with horses for speed.

The same is true for today's steam tractors. The opponents of this neat tractor are a horse pulling a cutter and an ox pulling a cutter.

They will compete in the field to see who can harvest wheat more efficiently.

Although American agriculture in the mid-19th century was not yet mechanized, American farmers had a wide range of agricultural machinery that they could choose to use.

For example, the sawmills and pallets produced by the Nicos and Shepard Company, and the cutters produced by William Brown Blacksmith's Upton Manufacturing Company were all very popular agricultural machinery in the United States.

The Qing Dynasty at the same time did not have such a soil, because there was no problem in the Qing Dynasty that could not be solved by manpower. If there were, then more manpower would be needed.

The United States lacks manpower. If it wants to improve production efficiency, other than using expensive black slaves, it can only find ways to improve production efficiency. This directly gave birth to many craftsmen who specialize in strange skills.

The Nikos & Shepard Company and William Brown Blacksmith's Upton Manufacturing Company mentioned above were both well-known early agricultural machinery manufacturers in the United States.

He was also the first craftsman in the United States to make a fortune by producing agricultural machinery.

Without the emergence of Liang Yao, these two companies would have been the earliest steam tractor manufacturers in the United States.

The oxen, horses and steam tractors in this competition were towing cutters manufactured by the Upton Manufacturing Company. These cutters were very popular among wheat farmers in California.

Using livestock to drag the cutting knife to harvest wheat saves time and effort, and is much more efficient than manual harvesting.

This harvesting method is also currently the main harvesting method used by California wheat crop growers.

(End of chapter)