A LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2078, 29 July 1890, Page 4

A LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.

Mr John Coll, well known in South ; Canterbury as a farmer, has written to 1 Mr James Poff, of tha Papanui Hotel,. from the office of the Moro Oogo Ranch, Castroville, California. In the course of his letter Mr Coll writes: —“lt was the best move I ever made: when I came to California. Without: any doubt this is the best country in the world for all sorts of people, either! business men, working men, or farmers.! I am with the Western Company. I have a good job asj foreman of the ranch, but long hours,j because it is the largest beet rancho in the world. We have nearly finished planting 14,000 acres of beet, I had 32 acres of beet and 16 acres of spuds! to myself. I have six acres of land,; good house, stable and barn and otherj outbuildings free and I pay rent for the remainder. I started with 65d01| a month and found, and now I get lOOdol a month. I got the job myself without the assistance of We are making plenty of money-! We have two fine cows, better than any I have seen in New Zealand. We gave 4Qdol for one, and Mrs Coll has been making 171 b of butter per week; for five months. I gave 30dol for thej other. The land is too good for cattle; You may think the Papanui land cannot be beaten; but it can. I have seen land here which is growing the thirty-second crop of grain, and it gave 120 bushels of barley to th® acre last year, Two, three, and four crops of potatoes are grown in the same ground in one year. lam going to try tw<| crops of potatoes and one of barley ip the winter for hay. This is a splepdid climate. It is never very very hot. Thirty dollars is the average wage per month for ploughmen. All ride: no man will drive horses and walk. A prize of lOOOdol is offered for the most sugar made out of ten acres of beet, and 500dol second prize. I have the best stand of beets, and think I shall have a good show for the prize this year. There are any amount of different ways of making money in this country, and no one can go wrong. On the ranch there are 132 working horses, and about forty-five ploughmen, but we shall want about 300 more men very soon, and I don’t know where they are to come from. The Company started to make a railwaybetweeu herb and Watsonville, and could get no men in the district, and 200 Chinamen were sent up from Francisco. They have been trying to procure otherij for cleaning the beets, but they be got. The celestials are as high-j toned as white men in this country.” ;