all vessels engaged in commerce. Its superficial area is 734 square miles, 

 or 444,491 acres. Over three fourths of this area is cultivated, the balance 

 being used for grazing. The only mountain of any size in the county is 

 Mt. Diablo, 3,896 feet in height, and is almost in the geographical center 

 of the county. 



Contra Costa stands second in the State in the value of manufactured 

 products, and no county offers better locations for factories. At Point 

 Richmond, the western terminus of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe 

 Railroad, there is great activity. In 1901 the population consisted of five 

 people; to-day there are upwards of 6,000. The works of the Pacific 

 Coast Oil Company (Standard) are also located at Point Richmond, as is 

 the great oil pipe-line running from Bakersfield. This pipe-line carried 

 10,000 barrels of oil in twenty-four hours. Six hundred men are employed 

 by the company, and 500 at the work and repair shops of the Santa Fe. 

 Here the oil is refined, and fifty-three different products are made from 

 the crude oil. 



At Point Richmond is the belt railway running around the Potrero, 

 the peninsula upon which Point Richmond is located, where there are 

 miles of deep-water frontage and abundant room for warehouses and 

 factory sites, thus affording transportation by rail as well as by water to 

 all points. Products of the farm and factory can alike be loaded here on 

 car or steamer. Already the Southern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka, 

 and Santa Fe are here, and electric street railways connecting San Pablo 

 and Point Richmond with Oakland and San Francisco are in operation. 



About two thirds of the area of the county is rolling and hilly, and 

 lying between these hills are some of the most fertile and beautiful valleys 

 in this great State. They are drained and watered by many streams, the 

 banks of which are bordered by oaks, sycamores, laurels, willows, etc., 

 while the hills are dotted with oaks, many of which are of large size. 



Fruits of all varieties, nuts, vegetables, and cereals are grown exten- 

 sively. Irrigation is not required to insure crops. The abundant winter 

 rainfall, the absence of the intense evaporating heat of the interior, and 

 the moisture-laden breezes from the ocean furnish abundant moisture 

 for all forms of vegetable life without recourse to irrigation. 



Wine-making has also become one of the most promising and profit- 

 able industries of the county, the wine produced being of the highest 

 order, and commanding ready sale at good prices. 



Stock-raising is a leading industry In Contra Costa County. The 

 lowlands have been reclaimed for summer grazing, and the rolling hills are 

 used in winter, creating conditions whereby a failure is impossible with 

 proper management. The stock farms of the county have produced some 

 of the world's most famous trotting and pacing horses, such as W. Wood, 

 Agatata, Diablo, Lou Dillon, Cricket, W. W. Foote, and others too numerous 

 to mention. 



It has become a regular form of treatment with many in the cities, 

 when their horses become footsore and lame, to send them to such farms 

 as the Dutard ranch, where, by simply turning them into the paddocks 

 on grass, they soon become as well as ever. 



In addition to the raising of horses, much attention is given to blooded 

 cattle and sheep and hogs, as the market for fine fatted stock is right 

 at hand. 



Large dairies are conducted all over the county, but in the western 

 end the product mostly shipped to the cities is milk, while in the central 

 and eastern parts of the county butter is the main object. Here again 

 low freight and express rates give unusual advantages. 



Every few miles along the entire coast line of the county there are 

 small settlements of men whose business is fishing, and the town of Black 

 Diamond is settled principally by people engaged in that industry. Such 

 fish as salmon, striped bass, shad, carp, rock-cod, flounder, etc., are caught 

 both for shipment and canning, a large fleet of small boats being engaged 

 in this business. 



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