airti fjusktnlmj. 
X. A. WILJiAHD, A. M., EDITOR, 
Or UfTTLK Fall*, Hkiikiukk Col'nty, Ntvr York. 
THE PACIFIC COAST—IV. 
Cbocic Manufacture. 
In previous articles we have given some 
account of the butter dairies of California. 
Cheese is manufactured in the State but tlie 
quantity is comparatively small. It. is made 
in farm dairies, though we understand that 
one or two factories are soon to be estab¬ 
lished. We went through the storehouses 
in San Francisco and examined numerous 
6amplea of cheese. Some of it was very 
well made, meaty in texture and fair in 
flavor; but we saw nothing that could be 
called “ a fancy article,” as that term is un¬ 
derstood in New York. 
One of i lie largest dealers in San Fran¬ 
cisco bad upon his shelves about a half mil¬ 
lion of pounds. It was placed on shelves 
on either side of the store-house, extending 
from the floor to the ceiling. No samples 
that we ever saw were in boxes, although 
the Ann, we were told, dealt in New York 
factory cheese to some extent. With a cli¬ 
mate so favorable for the production of good 
milk, and especially for the curing and keep¬ 
ing of cheese, we should expect California 
to be able to excel in the finer “ fancy 
grades.” Indeed, we know of no region 
having a temperature so admirably adapted 
to the production of clean, sweet-flavored 
dairy products us the coast range of Cali¬ 
fornia. 
Influence of Climate upon Cheese. 
The importance of a moderate, uniform 
temperature for the manufacture of choice 
dairy goods, can not be over-estimated. 
Much of the butter and cheese made in the 
Middle and Eastern States during hot 
weather, is more or less affected in flavor on 
account of the overheated condition of milk 
as it comes from the cow. The driving of 
cows from the pasture to tlx; stable when 
the temperature is from 90* to 100 , has a 
tendency to overheat and injure the milk of 
such cows before it is drawn, and it is ex¬ 
tremely difficult to collect a herd together 
during the intense heal of our summers 
without over-exercising some of the animals 
to that extent that the milk will be feverish, 
and misuited to the manufacture of line fla¬ 
vored goods. Add to Ibis the difficulty of 
making and keeping dairy products in a tem¬ 
perature not above 70’, when the tempera¬ 
ture of the atmosphere is above 90”, and it 
will be seen why such vast, quantities of but¬ 
ter and cheese made during hot weather are 
condemned as ordinary, inferior, and posi¬ 
tively bad. 
The present summer, as compared with 
the season of 18(59, practically illustrates our 
position. The season of 1809 was unusually 
cool and even in temperature, and at no 
time in the history of dairying has the ag¬ 
gregate annual cheese product proved to be 
of so uniform good flavor. The English 
shippers and cheese mongers were very 
greatly astonished at the marked improve¬ 
ment in the flavor of American cheese that 
year, and many attributed it to the progress 
which had been made in American manu¬ 
facture. The English shipper, Mr. Webb, in 
summing up his remarks on the quality of 
American cheese, says that “ the whole sea¬ 
son’s make (of 18(10) shows a decided im¬ 
provement in die average quality and larger 
proportion of really choice cheese than in 
any former year.” 
In our address before the American Dairy¬ 
mens’ Association, January 12th, 1870, we 
pointed out quite clearly what, in our opin¬ 
ion, was the main cause of the marked im¬ 
provement in the fla vor of American cheese 
for the season then Just past; and we now 
quote from that address the following para¬ 
graph, as summing up our views on that 
point: 
“ Seasons like the past, (18(50.) are excep¬ 
tions, and the like may not occur again in 
years. It approximates more nearly to the 
summers in England than those common 
with us, and to the peculiar condition of the 
climate, more than anything else, in my 
opinion, may ho attributed the general tine 
flavor of our cheese the past season. And if 
there was anything more needed to establish 
the fact of climatic influence, reference may 
be had to the hot summer of 1868 in Eng¬ 
land, and the consequent depreciation that 
year of English cheese.” 
Now, the extremely hot weather of the 
present year (1870) has put its black mark 
upon the cheese made during the lime of its 
continuance. You hear loud complaints 
among dealers in all the markets, of the 
“hot, strong flavor” of nearly all the cheese 
sent out by the factories from -the middle of 
July to the middle of August. And this con¬ 
dition of things will prevail more or less 
during a very hot summer until some plan is 
inaugurated in the construction of curing 
rooms, so that temperature may be con¬ 
trolled; and even then the trouble from 
faulty milk, on account of overheated cows, 
will not be obviated. 
It will be seen, then, what an immense 
advantage in climate the coast range of 
California possesses, where the average tem¬ 
perature is about 60° and the highest heat 
seldom goes above ?0 C . The advantage of 
mild winters in the saving of fodder, requir¬ 
ing the storing of comparatively little food 
to carry stock along, has been alluded to in 
previous articles. This point need not be 
enlarged upon, since dairymen who are ac¬ 
customed to feed stock during our cold win¬ 
ters, where six months’ stores must be pro¬ 
vided, will at once appreciate what advan¬ 
tage a milder climate is to the stock keeper. 
Wherever, therefore, there are grass lands 
in California having*the climate we have 
indicated, they should be employed for 
dairying, and they will prove in course of 
time, we believe, more valuable than the 
grain lands; and even now, taking one 
year with another, can be made the most 
remunerative. 
Markets. 
Of course, the question of markets is one 
to be considered; lor if the time comes 
when the Pacific slope has a surplus of dairy 
products, where is to be the market or out¬ 
let? We believe a very profitable trade 
could be opened with China or India for this 
class of goods. Indeed, some of the San 
Francisco dealers told us that shipments of 
cheese had been made to China, and with 
good profit" to the shipper, the only objec¬ 
tion being that the length of the voyage 
made rather slim returns. But. a regular 
and steady trade opened is a different mat¬ 
ter from chance shipments, and hence we 
see no reason why the dairy could not be 
made remunerative and enduring upon tlie 
Pacific slope. It is quite probable, for some 
lime to come, that, home consumption and 
home trade will take all the cheese that will 
be likely to be made upon this slope. 
Milk Diiii-ien. 
Wherever there are large cities or consid¬ 
erable towns, a supply of milk must he hud, 
ami milk dairies naturally follow and develop 
into a specialty. We were unable to get 
stat ist ics as to the quantity of fresh milk used 
daily in San Francisco, but we obtained 
some facta in regard to one of the largest 
dairies employed in furnishing fresh milk for 
city consumption, and this was the 
Dairy of A. F. Green & Co. 
It is located at Millbrae, in Sap Mateo Co., 
and numbers six hundred cows. San Mateo 
county lies south of Han Francisco, and is 
hounded on the northeast by the Bay of Ban 
Francisco, and west bv the Pacific, 
The rancho where this dairy is kept, em¬ 
braces about (5,000 acres. Three hundred 
and fifty cows are kept in milk all the time— 
that is, whenever any of this number dry up 
or fail in milk, others from the reserve are 
coining in milk to supply the vacancy, and 
thus the dairy is kept good all the year. 
The average quantity of milk delivered at 
Ban Francisco is seven hundred gallons per 
day. It is put up in cans holding three gal¬ 
lons, and sold to the milk-carriers at seventy 
cents per can. The transport of the milk 
from the rancho to the city, costs about four 
and a-lnilf cents per can, which leaves sixty- 
live and a-hulf cents for the milk, or nearly 
five and a-hulf cents net per quart to the 
proprietors. The milk is retailed in the-city 
at ten cents per quart. The average tem¬ 
perature upon the rancho is about (50 , and 
the milk is cooled off as soon as drawn by 
setting the cans in water tanks. In order to 
have the cans reach (lie city in time to be 
distributed by the milk-carriers, thceowsare 
milked at 12 M. and at 1 o’clock at night 
Munnircmciii and Feed of the Co>va. 
At this establishment there are extensive 
buildings for storing fodder and bousing Hie 
cow’s. The cows run out. to pasture every 
day through the year, but extra feed is 
commenced to be given about the first of 
July. The extra feeding is carried along as 
the cows require,generally up to the middle 
of February. 
The pasturage from the 1st of November 
to 1st of January is rather flashy, and is not 
alone of sufficient nutrition to keep the cows 
in milk. Young stock may, perhaps, pick 
their living from it; still, it is not considered 
good economy to allow animals, whether 
young or old, to depend wholly on pasturage 
during' this season. The pasturage begins 
to he good about the 1st. of January, and con¬ 
tinues to be abundant up to the 1st of July. 
The extra feta, adopted for this dairy con¬ 
sists per day for each cow ns followsTen 
pounds California hay, four pounds oil meal, 
four pounds Chili bean meal, and four pounds 
bran. The hay is cut and mixed with the 
several ingredients, when it is steamed and 
the cows are fed of it morning and evening. 
Animals not in milk arc fed loose hay. 
Mr. Green informed us that barley straw, 
out green, made the best Inly. The barley 
is sown about die 1st. of January, and the 
crop is cut the last of May, yielding at the 
rate of two and a-half tons to the acre, if 
the land has been properly prepared and 
manured at the time of putting in the crop. 
Mr. Green says the most trying time for 
dairy stock in California is from the 1st of 
November to the 1st of January, so far as 
feed is concerned ; for, although pastures be¬ 
gin to dry up and are brown in July, still 
there, is sufficient nutrition in the “bunch 
grass" to carry the stock along. 
The present season has been unusually 
dry, and more trouble lias been liad on ac¬ 
count. of scarcity of water than for any pre¬ 
vious year. 
The cows in this dairy make an average 
of about ten quarts of milk per day for the 
year; but during the “flush of feed" the 
yield is from four to seven gallons of milk to 
the cow per day. About, the last, of May or 
first of June the dairy is usually doing its 
best. 
In answer to our inquiry in regard to 
preserving an even temperature in the milk 
room, Mr. G. stated that not the least diffi¬ 
culty was had in keeping it at G5° the year 
round. 
Comparisons. 
We have now given our readers some of 
the leading features of California dairying. 
Having traveled over the dairy districts of 
Great Britain, France and Switzerland ; with 
an intimate acquaintance of the dairy lands 
of the Eastern and Middle States; of the 
Canadas and several of the Western States, 
we found, upon the Pacific slope, conditions 
different from anything seen before. The 
climate, the soil, and the grasses are different, 
and, indeed, as compared with other dairy 
sections, so unlike, (hat, we found it often 
difficult to draw satisfactory conclusions. 
Up to the present time, stock lias been 
kept upon extensive ranges. The soil is 
wonderfully productive in cultivated crops, 
hut whether any of our artificial grasses can 
he introduced to take the place of those nat¬ 
ural to the soil; whether, indeed, the hunch 
grass, under close cropping and long con¬ 
tinued dairying, will prove enduring, are 
questions not satisfactorily solved. 
While the climate of the coast-range is 
low and uniform in temperature, some of the 
valleys further in the interior arc intensely 
hot in summer. In the Sacramento Valley 
the heat is sweltering, and. of course, dairy¬ 
ing in such portions of the State could not 
profitably be carried on. The absence of 
meadows and the sowing of oats or barley 
for bay is a feature that at first, would not 
strike an Eastern dairyman favorably. Yet 
when it is taken into account that stock run 
out all winter in the fields, and compara¬ 
tively little fodder is required, meadows, it 
would seem, are of very little account and 
can well be digpgnsfld with. Looking over 
the country, ivFwe did, at its worst season, 
when everything is dry and parched, one 
would not he likely to be misled with im¬ 
pressions too favorable. And, yet from what 
we saw, and heard, we were favorably im¬ 
pressed with California dairy lands. Wc 
found stock universally in fine, thrifty con¬ 
dition. 
It was plainly evident that much less labor 
was required in t he care and feeding of stock 
here than at the East; that under ordinary 
management there must he a much less per 
rentage of loss ill stock from disease and ac¬ 
cident, on account of the more favorable cli¬ 
mate ; Unit fancy goods could be easily made, 
ami that with proper skill in manufacture, 
poor stuff might to he the exception rather 
than the rule; that with the same, prices for 
dairy products us at the East, large profits 
could be realized, because dairies could be 
managed at less expense, to say nothing of the 
difference in the price of lands. These, with 
other advantages, could not be ignored. And 
in saying this, we do not wish it to be in¬ 
ferred that we advise Eastern people with 
good farms, eligibly located, and who are 
doing well, to pull up slakes and go to Cali¬ 
fornia, for we believe something in the old 
adage, to “ let well enough alone.” Still, t,o 
young men set-king homes at. the West, who 
are active and energetic, and have skill in 
dairy management, California, in our opinion, 
offers some inducements which cannot be 
readily found elsewhere. 
-♦♦♦- 
Adulteration of lUillt. 
At the last session of the Legislature of 
New York a law was passed to punish the 
adulteration of milk delivered at cheese fac¬ 
tories. It is a judicious enactment as far as 
it goes, but might with propriety have been 
extended so as to award a full share of its 
pains and penalties to those, supplying milk 
for city consumption. The following em¬ 
braces tbo essential features of the bill: 
Whoever shall knowingly sell, supply or 
bring to be manufactured in any cheese 
manufactory in this State, any milk diluted 
with water, or in any way adulterated, or 
milk from which any cream has been taken, 
or milk commonly known as skimmed milk; 
or whoever shall keep back any part of the 
milk known as “strippings*" or whoever 
shall knowingly bring or supply milk to any 
cheese manufactory that is tainted or partly 
sour from want of proper care hi keeping 
pails, strainers or any vessel in which said 
milk is kept, clean and sweet, after being 
notified of such taint or carelessness; or any 
cheese manufacturer who shall knowingly 
use, or direct any of Ills employes to use, for 
his or their individual benefit, any cream 
from the milk brought to said cheese manu¬ 
facturer, without the consent of all the own¬ 
ers t hereof, shall, for each and every offense, 
forfeit and pay ft sum not less than $25, nor 
more than $100, with costs of suit, to be sued 
for in any Court of competent jurisdiction, 
for the benefit of the person or persons, firm 
or association, or corporation, or their as¬ 
signs, upon whom such fraud shall be com¬ 
muted. 
POULTRY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Diseased and Dying Chickens. 
The disease spoken of by C. F. Moseley, 
in Rural New-Yorker of the 3d inst., 
seems to us must be what is termed “ chick¬ 
en cholera,” a remedy for which we gave 
in Rural New-Yorker of August 20th, 
page 12(5. We have, in our time, lost many 
chickens by being fed with salt meat, the 
effect of which was to throw them into fits, 
and in that condition they would die if not 
attended t,o in time. As soon as they were 
observed, wc gave them a desert spoonful of 
castor oil and fed them on stale bread 
soaked in ale. We should recommend our 
correspondent to try the cholera remedy, 
and the, castor oil and ale on a portion of 
his flock, and report his success. A cor¬ 
respondent of the Cincinnati Gazette whose 
fowls have been troubled with this disease 
recommends the following as a cure:—“ Take 
a handful or more of white oak hark; put it 
in an earthen vessel, with water for the 
chickens to drink, carefully keeping all oth¬ 
er water from them.” In the meantime, if 
any of your readers know of a better rem¬ 
edy wc should be glad to bear from them. 
Let your experience lie known.— l. 
“ Eureka.” 
Last year I lost from my stock of poultry 
about seventy by the cholera. This year 1 
have only lost about fifty. I tried every¬ 
thing 1 thought would be of any use ; also 
gave a faitliful trial to all tlie remedies I 
saw advised or recommended—all which 
proved of no avail. The fowls would droop 
around a day or two, (comb turning very 
dark, and refusing to cat,) then die. A short 
time since 1 saw in the Rural an article 
speaking in encouraging terms of the use of 
alum water. I had a Dominic cock, about 
five months old, just, taken with the disease. 
I used the alum water—a tensp(toilful three 
times a day—keeping the chick shut tip by 
himself. (Let me here remark, that there is 
no use in the disease to give medicine, and 
allow the chicks to run at large and cat as, 
and wlnit they please.) Three days I con¬ 
tinued the doses, forcing him to cat crumbed 
wheat bread, well moistened with buliitr, and 
very freely sprinkled with red jwjtper. Being 
absent from home the next day and night, 1 
found, upon my arrival borne, the chicken 
“ about the same;" but found a favorite 
Brahma (light) hen so bad that she could 
not walk, also two Silver Spangled Ham¬ 
burg cocks pretty neatly gone. I gave each 
of them half a teaspoonful of paregoric and 
same quantity of alum water, mixed to¬ 
gether. Gave them four doses of this—at 
the rate of three doses per day—and the 
next afternoon let them out, with bright 
combs , and singing. I am fully satisfied the 
above is a sure and speedy cure of this dis¬ 
ease, the symptoms of which I have also 
given. 
My experience, the last two years, has 
been of the, five kinds of fowls 1 have kept, 
as follows: — Most subject, to disease — 
Dominies; next, tlu; Polands; third, the 
Spanish; the Brahmas prove good and 
hardy; the ilamburgs hardiest of all. I 
send you the above, trusting, among your 
many thousands of readers, it may be the 
means of preventing somewhat the depopu¬ 
lating of their poultry yards. 1 have de¬ 
rived frequently from the Rural very valu¬ 
able information—worth more than the sub¬ 
scription price to me; and I shall he highly 
gratified if I can in any way reciprocate.— 
G. O. B., Montane Place, Brooklandville, Md. 
A Natural Furiosity. 
Mu. T. H. Phillips, residing near this 
place, has a natural curiosity in the shape 
of a blind chick; that is, a perfect chick, 
with the exception of eyes, of which it has 
not tlic least appearance. It has a ragged 
strip on either side of the bill, extending 
back to the ear holes. It is a fine, healthy 
chick, and has a peculiar way of holding its 
bill up, as though it was trying to see some¬ 
thing—somewhat as “Blind Tom” is said 
to hold liia eyes toward the sun.—H. W., 
Shiloh, Ohio, 1870. 
Are Chickens with Cholera Poisonous If 
Eaten i 
The above question is both important 
and interesting, since even the most careful 
of those who eat chicken‘at all are liable to 
be imposed upon by venders, or even de¬ 
ceived in llieir own poultry yard. Of course 
no one would willingly eat a fowl that he 
knew to be diseased, unless he was very ig¬ 
norant, or sorely pressed by hunger and 
want; but it is desirable to remove the anx¬ 
iety, if possible, which persons naturally 
suffer in districts where the fowls are attack¬ 
ed with this scourge. In this community, 
an experienced and respectable physician 
attributed the sickness of several of his 
patients, lust spring, to their eating chick¬ 
ens diseased with cholera. I think the 
symptoms were those of an ordinary bilious 
attack—nausea, headache, 6cc. As evidence 
that he was in error, and that no ill effects 
are likely to follow the accidental or un¬ 
known eating of such diseased fowls, it is 
reliably stated that a gentleman who had 
lost a large number of liis chickens by chol¬ 
era, ascertained that when one died an indi¬ 
gent colored man on bis premises cleaned it, 
cooked it and ate it; and that lie was not 
known to have suffered any injury whatever 
from liis peculiar diet. I know both parties 
well.— n. c. 
Plseous Contraband of War. 
The London Field of the 27th of August 
says:—“The national pastime of Belgium, 
the great pigeon races from the southern 
provinces of France, lias been abruptly put 
a stop to by the war. The French author¬ 
ities have very naturally interdicted the 
entry of Belgian pigeoits into France. 
When it is borne in mind that there are 
10,000 trained pigeons, any one of which 
could convey intelligence from Paris to the 
frontier towns of Belgium in which they 
are located in the space of five or six hours, 
we cannot be surprised at the French author¬ 
ities interfering with this pastime. The strat¬ 
egic information conveyed by a single pigeon 
might lose a battle or an empire. 
“ At the same time, we sympathise with 
the Belgians in the derangement of their 
favorite amusement. In England we have 
little idea of the fervor with which this sport 
is pursued by them. Contours from the ex¬ 
treme south of France, in which 1,000 or 
1,500 pigeons take part, and in which the 
first prize is a service of plate given by his 
Majesty the King of the Belgians, are not 
uncommon ; and minor races of from three 
hundred to four hundred miles are of every¬ 
day occurrence in the season. During the 
continuance of the war the Belgians con¬ 
template starting these pigeon races fiom 
this country." 
A I'm I out Him Roont. 
It used to be said, in times past, that the 
Yankees of Connecticut were queer invent¬ 
ive geniuses; they went so far as to invent 
wooden nutmegs, and palm them off on the 
honest Knickerbockers as the Simon-pure 
article. But their star must wane before a 
genius in Missouri, who has recently taken 
out a very novel patent. The invention 
consists in so combining and arranging a 
poultry roost with the gates of one or more 
bee hives that the perching of the poultry 
upon the roost will serve to automatically 
close the hives. The object is to insure the 
closing of the hives at night, so as to ex¬ 
clude the bee moth, and Hie opening of the 
same in the morning to permit the passage 
of the bees in and out during the day. Sure¬ 
ly, the genius of our people of this universal 
Yankee nation is equal to all emergencies. 
FeediiiK Foul try. 
The habit of giving much food in a short 
space of time, to poultry is a very bad one. 
If you notice their habits you will perceive 
that the process of picking up tlmir food 
under ordinary, or what we may call the 
natural condition, is a very slow one. Grain 
by grain does the meal got. taken, and with 
the aggregate no small amount of sand, small 
pebbles and the like, all of which, passing 
into the crop, assists digestion greatly. But 
in the “lien-wife’s” mode of feeding poul¬ 
try, a great heap is thrown dow n and the 
birds are allowed to “ peg away” at such a 
rate that their crop is filled too rapidly, and 
the process of assimilation is slow, painful 
and incomplete. No wonder that so many 
cases of choked ennv are met with under 
this treatment. Many other diseases which 
affect chickens might be obviated by ama¬ 
teur breeders were a little precaution taken 
in so simple a thing as feeding. Regularity 
in feeding is also essential. —l. 
The Sex of Ekk*. 
The American Stock Grower gives the 
following as the manner of determining the 
sex of fowls by the eggs. It says“ When 
examining an egg, by holding it between the 
eye and the light of the sun or a candle, if 
the vivi'ying speck is seen exactly on top, 
such an egg, it is said, will produce a male 
bird; but if, on the contrary, the speck be 
on one side, it will produce a female. It is 
said, also, Hint the sex of the embryo bird 
may lie distinguished by the shape of ilie 
egg; as, if the egg is elongated in shape, it 
will contain a male, but if more globular it 
will contain a female. So that if these indi¬ 
cations be true, either sex may he propa¬ 
gated at pleasure, which is not yet known 
to ho the case in any ot her class of animal 
creation.” __ 
Information Wanted 
A. B. Keniiig, Iowa, writes :—“ I write to 
ask you, friend ‘ L.’ of the Poultry Depart¬ 
ment, or some other expert in ‘ chicken- 
ology,’ the following: 
“ i. Why is it that my thorough-bred and 
perfectly rose - combed Golden Spangled 
Hamburg cock and liens have bred more 
than half their progeny single-combed ? 
“ 2. Are the single-combed of any value 
for show or breeding ? 
“ 3. Who can furnish pure and good Gold 
or Silver Spangled Hamburgs? An early 
answer in your columns will gratify many 
Iowa readers.” 
