Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-05-25

from Alfalfa-0ur Compton Cheese Factory
Tho Actualities and Possibilities of this
Industry in Los Angeles County-DOwnsy
Pigs and Money Circulation.
We take tho following from
very interesting letter in the Rural
Ress, written by General ]. H.
Shields, of this county:
ALFALFA AND CHEESE.
Sixty days ago Messrs. Bulls &
Walker started the pioneer Coop
erative cheese factory of Los An
geles county, and, for aught know
to the contrary, of Southern CAL
ifornia. The factory is situated on
the Wilmington railroad, near
Florence. Cheese aking COM
menced about the middle OF Feb
ruary. Success accrued to the in
augural trial. The outcome was
= superior merchantable cheese.
Failure Ia the rule Of first trials at
untried places, however sufficient
seemingly may have been the ex-
perience and success of the opera
tor elsewhere to warrant the con.
clusion before the fact, that the
coyest secret of success could not
hide away in strange feed and I'M
familiar meteorology. A daily
production of about $50 pounds Of
cheese has been going OH now for
about two months. In all that
time and quantity only one batch
Of curd has been spoiled.
An aggressive jet Of artesian wa
ter il deliverable eight feet above
the floor, into every room of the
factory. This artesian fountain
maintains . uniform, perennial
temperature of 81 deg. Fab. This
guarantees uniform, perennial, sue
Cessful cheese-making.
German & Co., of Los Angeles,
buy the entire cheese product of
the Bulls & Walker factory, at the
San Francisco price of first-class
California cheese. There is room
for the extension of the manufac.
ture.
Bulls & Walker lay great store
by their facilities to produce new
grass cheese all through the Win
ter. San Francisco always bids
high for such cheese. so does New
York and London. They also lay
great store by their facilities to run
their factory without interruption
through oil such years as 1877. Six
acres of the 400-acre tract upon
which the factory stands, was sown
to alfalfa in 1875. On portions Of
the six acres the stand was only
partial, and yet the yield was eight
tons per acre for a single moving.
There Is reason to believe that a
would have given twelve tons per
acre. This was without irrigation.
And last year was one of the great
est drouth for thirty years. Only one
crop was mown last year, the 9th.
ers being pastured. But this one
crop from the six acres weighed
eight tons dry. If a good stand had
been on the three acres
instead of half a stand
the single moving dry would
have weighed in the same proper
ton, II tons, or l0S tons of dry hay
or its equivalent as the amount of
the nine annual crops of six acres.
Judge Gray, OH the San Gabriel
river, on about the same number
of acres, obtained, in 1877, yield
about equivalent to the last men.
toned sum total.
YIELD OF ALFALFA FIELDS.
Mr.. Caldwell, less than a mile
from the cheese factory, sowed al.
falfa seed in February, 1877, the
last year of drOuth, and before De-
cember 9Th OF the same year had
cut five crops, averaging two tons
per acre per moving. A sixth
crop on the Sth of December was
two weeks advanced in growth from
the last moving and was mown
about three weeks thereafter, yield.
ing fully up to the average of the
five preceding crops. All this Cald-
well crop, be it noted, was sowing
in 1877 and moving in 1877, the
self-same year of almost unprece
dented dr6uth.
Near the Caldwell place, OH the
San Gabriel river ranch, weighed
dry the June, 1877, moving one
quarter Of an acre of fifty-acrs
alfalfa field. 1t weighed l,OO(
pounds, or at the rate of two tons
per acre. This was above an aver.
age quarter acre. The field was
mOwn seven times and yielded two
crops not mown. The field was
irrigated one time only in all the
year 1877, the year of the drouth.
FIGURES ON FIELDS.
The square mile in alfalfa around
the factory of Bulls & Walker, be.
fore mentioned, will maintain GAG
COWS, that will average three gal.
Ions of milk per day for eight
months in the year. Bulls &
Walker are paying their neighbors
nine cents per gallon for milk, so
$40 acres OF land, $40 cows, three
gallons of milk per cow per day,
1920 gallons per day at nine cents
per gallon, $l72.S0 income per day
off one square mile; S5,lS4 pei
month; SAL Az per eight months
per square mile.
30, again, 1920 gallons of milk
per day, eight pounds per gallon,
10 pounds of milk making one
pound of cheese. at 10 cents pei
pound, gives $3.50 per day; So, 900
per month; S55, 200 per eight
months for the square mile around
Bulls 81 Walkers cheese factory
In this estimate calves are not
counted, hogs fed on the refuse are
not counted.
These results are different from
those deduced elsewhere, because
thought we'll Of using lower aver
ages for the whole alfalfa area, with
which, of course, 1 cannot be as
familiar as with the square mile
around the factory of Bulls &
Walker.
CULTIVATION OF ALFALFA.
A perfect stand Of alfalfa may be