One of California's Finest 

 Ranches-a Woman's Enterprise. 



MRS. M. B. 5NERHAN. 



THE pleasures of life are full of simple happiness in the country, for there 

 is leisure to enjoy nature, books and friends. The family are gathered 

 closer together by the long evening without distractions to draw them 

 from the fireside. Yes! How much affection the ranch affords. After 

 the family, come the faithful animals, the horses that neigh at the 

 sound of your footsteps, the cows that turn their soft eyes to see who 

 is patting their sleek sides, and all the lesser ones that show affection for 

 you. Sometimes after an absence from home it seems as though even the 

 trees and flowers breathed forth a welcome. 



In the year 1884 the failing health of my father brought the entire 

 family to California for a permanent residence. Leaving Philadelphia, with 

 its busy social life, and the opportunities of a city, the change to California 

 was a happy one. 



My father and mother, believing it best for girls to be independent, 

 gave me some money to use as I thought best. After looking around for 

 an investment that promised well, through the advice of a family friend 

 I purchased a section of land five miles from Fresno, intending to sell it 

 again when values increased. There was a new, but rather queerly built, 

 house on the place. The land was raw and unimproved with the exception 

 •f ten acres of wine grapes, four acres of old vineyard of mixed varieties 

 and thirty acres set to almond trees. 



The warm dry air of the valley helped my father's lungs, so after a 

 Httle time it was decided that the family should live in Fresno county for 

 at least part of the year. But after a year of wheat planting the spirit of 

 the neighborhood prevailed and a forty-acre muscat vineyard for raisin- 

 making was planted. This was steadily added to until there were two hun- 

 dred acres of muscats. Meanwhile Bartlett pear, olive and peach orchards 

 followed and then a table-grape vineyard. The raisin-grape vineyard 

 afforded sufficient revenue to carry the expenses of the young orchards until 

 'tttey themselves became profit-yielding. 



When the family moved to Fresno, it was found impossible to purchase 

 butter fit for table use and it was often unfit for cooking. Sending East 

 for books, I took up butter-making and soon found that I had as well 

 to study cows, stables, and the cleanliness of the dairy. The alfalfa taste 

 which in some places is noticeable had to be kept out of the milk as it was 

 impossible to remove it with any means I could command. This taint was 

 eonquered but had lead into the study of bacteriology as far as making 

 cultures, to find where the control was needed, and of the cultivation of the 

 bacteria essential to high flavor. The knowledge that we had good butter 

 en our table quickly spread among friends and they begged for a roll or 

 two a week. 



I was thus carrying on butter-making on a small scale with the usual 

 farm outfit when the need came for more money to carry out my larger 

 plans and the surest source of income on the ranch proved to be the dairy. 

 More cows were secured, a small separator and a Babcock test followed. 

 As cows were scarce two carloads of Arizona nondescripts were purchased 

 and milking-time for the next month or two was a Buffalo Bill show. The 

 dairy proving a success, fifty head of registered Holstein yearlings were 

 brought from the East, and a steam plant with large separator and power 

 shurn were added. This was the first alfalfa creamery and won the first 

 gold medal ever given to alfalfa butter. The two hundred cows paid in 

 seven years an average of $51 .65 a year per cow. 



With the registered cows came the fascinating study of breeding 

 to increase excellence, to build constitution, and to eliminate weakness and 

 defects. The success of this study has been shown in the results I at- 

 tained, for in the third generation came Juliana De Kol, the World's prize 

 milk and butter producing cow, which the California Promotion Committee 



