"She’s a nice country. But she was stole a long time ago…An’ you never seen such purty country – all orchards, an’ grapes, purtiest country you ever seen…But you can’t have none of that lan’. That’s a Lan’ and Cattle Company. An’ if they don’t want ta work her, she ain’t gonna git worked. You go in there an’ plant you a little corn, an’ you’ll go to jail!"
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 18. Pa and Tom Joad meet a man and his son who are quitting California after being unable to get work there. The man warns the Joads that all the good land in California has been bought up by a property company. This foreshadows that California may not be the land of milk and honey the Joads are expecting.