230 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



coast dairies began work early in the fifties, their 

 opportunities being the San Francisco demand which 

 was also drawing butter by ship from all parts of the 

 world and paying high prices. It was a very rough 

 kind of dairying at first and was carried on, as an 

 old pioneer used to say, "by a lot of men who went 

 into partnership with the calves" as the quick fluc- 

 tuations in prices made it uncertain whether a 

 man would do better by having butter or meat to 

 sell, and so there was an effort to have both ready. 

 However, this condition did not last long. The meat 

 demand was met by driving in cattle from the west- 

 ern states and Texas and this made meat so cheap 

 that four-year-olds could be bought for $10 a head 

 and the dairymen found this stock, though very poor 

 for dairying, better than the Mexicans. For a time 

 dairying with such cattle was profitable. In 1857 

 there were 130 dairies, of 25 to 200 cows each, ship- 

 ping from Petaluma. In 1858 butter was worth a 

 dollar a pound in San Francisco and cheese, made 

 of skim-milk and buttermilk, sold at 25 cents 

 a pound. Two years later these prices were quar- 

 tered; the rough pioneer dairying could no longer 

 pay and efforts for better practices and equipment 

 began. 



In improving this stock it was the influence of the 

 Durham that one saw most clearly and frequently 

 on dairy farms for two or three decades later. 

 Although Devons, Ayrshires and Holsteins were 

 introduced quite as soon, the Jersey made the first 

 modifying drive on the Shorthorn. The Jersey bull 



