286 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



The chief dairy districts are Marin, Sonoma, Santa Clara, 

 Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Cruz, (the counties 

 west of the Diablo divide, between 35 and 39, taking the 

 lead) then Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Yolo, (the center of 

 the Sacramento-San Joaquin Basin) and after these the Sierra 

 Nevada. 



The most notable dairy property in the State was a few 

 years since a small tract of 130,000 acres, in Marin County, 

 owned by three gentlemen ; but it has since been divided into 

 three equal parts, one belonging to J. M. Shafter, another to 

 C. Howard, and a third to the estate of O. L. Shafter. It fronts 

 thirty-five miles on the ocean, including Point Reyes, north of 

 the Golden Gate, and extends inland ten miles. This estate 

 was stocked with cows, which were leased in herds, with from 

 five to seven acres to each cow, the lessee paying about $25 

 cash for each cow, and a cow-calf for each two cows as an- 

 nual rent. The yield for each cow above expenses is estimated 

 at $60, so that the lessee has a fair chance to prosper with 

 good management ; and the dairy-men of Marin, as well as 

 of other parts of the State, have generally done well. No 

 other agricultural occupation in California has paid so steadily, 

 or given competence to so large a proportion of the men en- 

 gaged in it, except wool-growing. 



208. Cheese. The annual production of cheese in Cali- 

 fornia is 3,400,000 pounds, including 700,000 from Monterey, 

 525,000 from Santa Clara, 470,000 from San Mateo, 380,000 

 from Marin, 340,000 from San Luis Obispo, 250,000 from So- 

 noma, and 230,000 from Merced. Monterey and San Luis 

 Obispo, which front on the ocean for a hundred miles south of 

 36 40', and produce about one-twelfth of the butter of the 

 State, supply more than one-third of the cheese ; while Marin 

 and Sonoma, which occupy the Pacific shore from 38 40' to 

 39 50', make three-sevenths of our butter, and only one-fifth 

 of our cheese. The cheese dairy-men feed less cultivated food 

 to their cows than do the butter men, and generally they oc- 



