MANAGEMENT AND PROFIT OF FOWLS. 329 
from the establishment of cheese and butter factories at convenient 
points. 
Taking the presented data as the basis of an estimate, it would appear 
that the total butter product of the year at the Point Reyes estate 
reaches about 540,000 pounds, bearing a pecuniary value of $175,000. 
A letter dated November 16, 1870, received by the Department from 
Mr. Shafter, one of the proprietors of the Point Reyes estate, states 
that this great dairy enterprise was commenced with a stock of Texas 
cattle, a large variety of grades being afterward purchased, and im- 
provement persistently carried on by crosses with bulls of approved 
breeds. The stock of cows at the present time is estimated to be worth 
$45 per cow, average valuation. The estate comprises twenty-three 
organized dairies, and the intention is to increase this number, in 1871, 
to thirty dairies, with an aggregate of 4,500 cows. The butter is churned 
in box churns, measuring about 54 by 20 inches, and revolving forty-five 
times per minute on their longest diameter. The hands are not per- 
mitted to come in contact with the butter during any of the processes 
of manufacture and packing. 
A correspondent of the Department in El Dorado County writes that, 
during the active season of 1870, 4,000 cows were employed in the 
dairy business in that county, and that the business is rapidly increas- 
ing. The mountain valleys afford green grass during the summer 
months, when the river valleys are dry. — 
In the San Francisco market, during the years 1867—68~69, wholesale 
rates of the best grades of State butter ranged from 70 cents in Novem- 
ber and December to 35 cents at the close of May, when prices were 
at their minimum. Hastern butter is sold during the same period at 
much lower rates. During 1870 prices have been reduced by unusually 
iarge importations from the east, consequent upon the increased facili- 
ties of transportation afforded by the Pacifie Railroad. 
MANAGEMENT AND PROFIT OF FOWLS. 
Except among professional poultry-breeders, and amateurs who can 
afford to gratify their fancy without regard to pecuniary remuneration, 
poultry has usually been left to care for itself to a great extent. The 
real profit of pouliry-keeping is becoming better understood, however, 
and the care of fowls, in regard to both food and shelter, is increasing. 
In the milder seasons of the year, domestic fowls, left to their own 
free ways, are almost invariably healthy. They secure exercise, pure 
air, pure water, variety of foed, and access to fine dry soil in which to 
bathe. As health is the first condition of success in poultry-keeping, 
this fact presents the key to the whole matter, of profitable manage- 
ment of poultry on farms and in large numbers as a specialty. If 
fifty hens, kept in health, can be made to produce a clear annual profit 
of $50, a thousand in like condition may be made to yield a propor- 
tionate profit. The chief difficulty experienced is that of keeping large 
numbers in good condition, and this difficulty arises from failure to ob- 
serve to the extent required the conditions which promote success with 
a few fowls. The proportion of range necessary, of sheltered space, of 
food, water, care, &c., must be extended mathematically in proportion 
to the number of fowls kept; and then, other things being equal, the 
profit is as certain with many hens as with a few. 
