328 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
With the exception of the “ Home Ranche,” the various divisions of 
the estate, with the cows and the necessary buildings, are let to tenants, 
generally at arent rate of $30 per cow, tenants being required to raise 
one-fifth of the calves and to build or keep in repair certain fences, the 
owners providing the materials. Farm implements and dairy utensils 
are furnished by the tenants. The dairies average, for the season, a 
vield of about 180 pounds of butter per cow. Mr. Willard thus deseribes 
ihe butter-worker used by these dairies : 
Ik consists of a heavy oak slab, of circular form, set at an inclination, so as to allow 
the buttermilk to pass off, and revolves on rollers arranged in a standard which sup- 
ports it in the center. At the lower end of the machine, and just beyond the cireular 
slab, there is an upright, at the top of which is fastened a metal socket for the recep- 
tion of the lever used in working the butter. This socket works on a universal joint, 
so as to permit of its being moved in any direction. A plank, with grooves near the 
outer edges, is arranged below the circular slab, to catch the buttermilk and moisture 
flowing trom the butter during the process of working, and is also slightly inclined, 
so that all slops pass off along the grooves and are deposited in a tub. By this 
iurangement ihe circular slab or bed of the butter-worker can be moved backward or 
forward on the plane of its circle, while the universal joint, to which the le®er is 
attached, allows the lever to be handled in any direction. These butter-workers are 
the most convenient we have seen. 
The butter is sent to San Francisco, and has a high reputation in 
that market, bringing, in rolls, 53 to 35 cents per pound, and in easks | 
30 and 33 cents, at wholesale. It is firm and waxy in texture, and the 
best specimens are of excellent quality, showing that, with the skillful 
management exhibited in the butter factories of Orange County, New 
York, the very finest product could be obtained. The low, even tem- 
perature, the softness and purity of the water, and the sweet and health- 
ful food contribute to such a result in favoring the best condition of 
milk. 
At the Muddy Hollow Dairy there were 166 cows in milk. The man- 
ager stated that, in flush of food, when cows were at their best, the 
average daily product of butter was one and one-fourth pound per cow. 
The texture was solid and waxy, the flavor fair, but wanting in the pecu- 
liar aroma of the finest grades of New York butter. The churning is 
done by horse-power. 
The “Home Ranch” contains 3,000 acres, and on the farm, or 
connected with it, were 413 cows, 400 heifers—which were being 
raised for milk—158 horses, and about 2,000 beef-cattle. The beef- 
cattle are sent to market at the age of three years or more, and 
bring from $40 to $60 per head. Cows come in from December to 
March, in which iatter month it is desired that they all be in milk. 
Here, as on the other farms, tlie bunch-grass, or grama, is depended 
upon for pasture, the hay consisting, as it does generally throughout 
the State, of oats, cut while the straw is green. About one hundred 
tons of this hay were harvested during the season, grown. on fifty 
acres. Beets are raised in considerable quantities for cattle food, roots 
and tops being cut up together, and fed to cows in milk at the rate of a 
pailfal each per day. On this ranch the cows receive occasional sup- 
plies of food as early as the month of August, according to the state of 
the weather, it being the intention to restrain the cows from ranging 
over the hills during the prevalence of chilling winds. Other dairies 
which were visited showed a product of butter averaging one-half 
pound daily per cow, the average in the flush of the season reaching 
one and one-quarter pound per cow. In summing up his observations, 
Mr. Willard points out the advantages which would result from division 
into smaller tenant farms, each supporting seventy or eighty cows, and 
