I 
PRACTICAL PAPERS—BUTTER FACTORIES. 257 
ing fruit being carted out for that purpose. The product of 
large apple orchards is often left to rot on the ground, or a por¬ 
tion only of the fruit converted into cider for vinegar. 
The vineyards, can, perhaps, be made to pay well tor wine, 
since the climate and soil are so wonderfully adapted to grape 
culture that grapes can be grown at a mere trifling expense. 
The Largest Batter Dairy Estate in the World .—But I set out 
to speak of some of the dairy lands visited, and perhaps a 
brief description of the Howard & Shafter Ranche will be of 
interest. This is probably the largest butter dairy estate in 
the world. It is at least the largest that has come under my 
own immediate observation, whether in this country or in Eu¬ 
rope. 
Some general idea of its extent may be gathered from the 
fact that it has a coast range of fifty miles, and contains seven¬ 
ty-five thousand acres. About one hundred miles of fence 
have been erected on this estate at a cost of $400 per mile. It 
is located in Marin county, at Point Reyes. 
Marin county lies directly north of San Erancisco and the 
Golden Gate. At the northwest point of the county Toma- 
lis Bay, a long, narrow body of water extends southward, and 
is nearly met by Sir Francis Drake’s Bay pushing northward. 
This makes a neck of land, which has the appearance on the 
map of projecting into the ocean. How, by extending a line 
in a southeasterly direction from Tomalis Bay toward San 
Francisco, so as to give us a strip of country on the east coast 
of Sir Francis Drake’s Bay, we have on the west of this line 
and bounded by the two bays and the ocean the famous Point 
Reyes Ranche. 
The character of the country over the Point Reyes estate 
may be described as a succession of hills and valleys. In some 
places there are large, level tracts. Good roads have been 
made over the lands, and as the carriage winds over the hills 
and through the canyons the scenery is most picturesque and 
charming. The climate here is delightfully cool and refresh¬ 
ing. Fanned by the breezes of the Pacific, the temperature 
17— Ag. Te. 
