1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 361 Land Acts
Since the Central Valley of California has been under planned development from the beginning of development, the farmlands, orchards and farms in the Central Valley of California are arranged in an unconventional order, which looks very comfortable.

California, and even the entire east and west of the United States are sparsely populated.

As far as the currently developed arable land in California is concerned, it accounts for less than 5% of the arable area in the territory.

According to the "Agricultural Land Act" promulgated by California in 1851.

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

How much is allocated depends on the fertility of the land and the remoteness of the location.

In the suburbs of San Francisco, or the suburbs of Stockton, each person can only be allocated a maximum of 20 acres.

In the case of wasteland under development, 80 acres per person are distributed according to the highest standard.

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

The per capita arable land area is high, which is the benefit of less people and more land.

In fact, the land-grant area of ​​California’s Agricultural Land Act is already a very low standard in the United States.

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

Even the "Graduate Degrees Act" promulgated in 1854 and the "Homestead Act" promulgated in 1862 in the future still have a minimum land area standard of 40 acres, which is higher than the minimum standard of 20 acres in California's "Land Law".

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

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

In addition to paying land tax progressively according to the size of the land occupied, if the land exceeding the legal limit cannot be sold within 30 years, the land held will be reduced to the lowest price, which is 12.5 cents per acre.

From the decrees promulgated by the American federal government over the years, it can be seen that the American federal government encourages the reclamation of wasteland to increase the value of land and encourages the circulation of land assets, but it does not encourage land mergers.

To get 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 relying solely 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-acre land grant for each person, even a household with 20 mu of land was regarded as a small landlord in the village.

The land-grant standard in California was the standard for a middle-level landowner in the Qing Dynasty.

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

Of course, California law also restricts land acquisitions.

At present, California, like many states in the Midwest, does not levy land taxes on land.

But this is conditional. Those who hold land below 80 acres are not taxed. Those who hold more than 80 acres and exceed the standard will be taxed according to the progressive system and will not enjoy the government's agricultural subsidy policy.

Therefore, many Californian farmers hold at most 80 acres of standard land, and rarely choose to hold more than 80 acres of land.

As for those farms with more than a thousand acres of land, they are not privately owned, but collective farms spontaneously formed by many farmers in order to reduce the risk of planting and operation.There are also farmers who choose to join the farm to raise funds to purchase expensive agricultural machinery and livestock for common use to reduce planting costs.

In fact, the distribution of the farm land to each person did not exceed the land holding standard in California.

Liang Yao got off the train and saw a group of brats riding ponies and leading dogs, shouting vulgar words like Fake, Buda, Fuck Your Mother, Sai Linmu, Sa Nvnei, etc. Fighting around the station.

These bear 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 shape of the steam engine is very rough and has a primitive beauty.

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

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

Liang Yao couldn't help leaning forward to take a closer look at the tractor. There was no cab at all, and there was an open platform at the rear of Toledi for the driver to stand on and manipulate the steering wheel.

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

According to the introductions of Walter, Pratt, Whitney and others, gears, reverse, and precise control of speed are fundamentally impossible.

Once the tractor is started, it can only let him drive at his own speed. The only thing the driver can intervene in is the direction of travel of the steam tractor and the brakes.

The early steam engines basically competed with livestock. For example, the early steam trains competed with horses for speed.

The same is true of today's steam tractor. The opponent of this neat tractor is a horse pulling a knife and a cow pulling a knife.

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

Although American agriculture in the middle of the 19th century had not been mechanized, the agricultural machinery that American farmers could choose to use was already quite abundant.

For example, the sawmills and grain grinders produced by Nichols and Shepard Company, and the cutting knives produced by William Brown Blacksmith's Upton Manufacturing Company are all very popular agricultural machinery in the United States.

At the same time, the Qing Dynasty did not have such a soil, because there were no problems in the Qing Dynasty that could not be solved by manpower. If there were any problems, more manpower would be needed.

The United States lacks manpower, and in order to improve production efficiency, in addition to using expensive black slaves, they can only find ways to improve production efficiency, which directly gave birth to many artisans who pursue strange skills and ingenuity.

The above-mentioned Nichols and Shepard Company and William Brown Blacksmith's Upton Manufacturing Company are relatively well-known early American agricultural machinery manufacturers.

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

Without Liang Yao's birth, these two companies would be the earliest steam tractor manufacturers in the United States.

The oxen, horses and steam tractors in this competition are pulling the cutting knives made by Upton Manufacturing Company. This kind of cutting knives is very popular among wheat farmers in California.

Livestock dragging the cutter to harvest wheat saves time and effort, and is much more efficient than manual harvesting.

This harvesting method is currently the main harvesting method for California wheat crop growers.

(End of this chapter)