The Newtown bee., 1904-05-20
SOUTHERN CALIFOR-
 MIA. As Seen Through the Eyes of an Esteemed Newtown
 Gentleman,
E. JOHNSON.

FL JOHNSON.
 Of the several large dairies in thls section of the state that are furnishing cream, butter and milk for home con- sumption, your correspondent has al- ready visited two, that are claSSed as among the best in the state. One has for it's herd about 100 COWS, the great CT part of which are of the HOlStein grade. There, we found but little outlay for buildings, large corral where the COWS are herded for milking, and ranch of several hundred acres over which they roamed during the day the whole year through. Alfalfa, fodder corn, and barley hay are grown ley and oats are grown for grain crep, which is fairly good when the winter rains have been frequent, for that dairy is in valley where irrigation has not yet been introduced. In case the rainfall has been too light to grow grain crop, it is cut and cured for fodder, and is not so much a real loss as disappointment. The other dairy is in the town of San Bernardino or the line of the Southern Pacific rail- road, and where irrigation is relied upon for most crops. There, I found a herd of 200 COWS or more, and dairy business carried on on larger scale. Their stock is mostly grade Jerseys and Holsteins and they aim to keep it up in numbers by raising their heifer calves. There, too, it is cream, butter and milk, butter being the larger part of the marketable product. l am told that this ranch is owned and controlled by syndicate.
 Here we found large barn, but what, among our dairy farmers in the East, we would not call an up-to-date building by any means. It is long, low building with not large overhead space, with plank floors and gutters, with the same style of StanchiOns still most in vogue in NewtOwn, and the stable cleanings pushed out the back door to wait the convenience of trans portation and distribution on the ranch later on. The creamery is con- nected with the barn, thing I did not like!to see, and,that would not be en- dorsed or tolerated by any progressive New England farmer. The milk that is sold for daily distribution in the city market is run through an aeratOr as soon as drawn from the COW, and re- duced to the required temperature, and delivered to families morning and evening, retailing at eight cents a quart during the summer months and for 10 cents during the winter months. The balance is run through the Sepa- rator, and sold as cream or manufac- tured into butter. The best butter p cents pound. A small apartment with a row of stanchionS to accOmmO- date small calves, shelf in front with holes in which to set the pails, and the little fellows crowd in, take their places, each before pail and drink what is set before them, then they go out on the range until the call comes for the next meal. The balance ofthe skim milk runs through pipe laid underground connecting the separator with the hog trough, possibly 20 rods away. The hogs know about what time to expect breakfast and supper. | In the pen were about 25 of the hog kind from 300 pounds weight down tC B or 40 pounds. Of course the biggest and strongest got in first, and after would stand with noses in the trough and grunt because they could not ea1 more, and the smaller ones were for. tunate if they could get in in time al the last to lick up the froth that stuck to the trOugh'S sides. l was told it i. a 25O0-acre ranch. Large quantitie! of alfalfa and barley are grown bott for soiling and hay, and the COWS come in from the range twice day the yea through for their feed, of either greer or cured fodder. l was very much in terested in all saw, although there is a wide difference between the methC ds l II pf do oi~xys iv,C !, ern California so far as 1 have yet seen and the same work as it is carrled or in some parts of Connecticut ant Western Massachusetts. Among the things that expected to find lackin, in this country was good drinking water, good butter and good milk. w get as fine butter as in the East, th
 milk is good but of little differen flavor than that made from the Swee grass grown on our New Englan' farms. The water is good, but thu best drinking water we get is brOugh around in five-gallOn jars and sells fO 25 cents jar. Occasionally we find
 family who keeps one COW for the milk but not often, except on the Outsid , ranches. It was while on the way tt the second dairy we saw the ruins o ; an old Spanish mission. It must hay
 fallen into disuse long before an
 American came to the coast. I hay
 not yet found any one who can give m any outline of It's history any farthe than that it is supposed to have bee
 one of the outposts on the frontier S to speak, as gathering-in place, ,wher
 the Franciscan fathers would tur
 aside on their monthly visits, to reac
 those of the faithful who were to
 weak or too old to travel on foot a
 they had to do to reach the old estat
 iShed missions along the coast. should be treasured by the people ( the present generation as preciol
 relic of the early history of the monk
 who travelled so faithfully one gener;
 tiOn after another hundreds of yea
 ago, when all this country was unde
 Spanish rule. There are many mi
 sions nearer the scoast that are we
 preserved, and in which services al {. continuously rendered by faithfu
 pious men, to the descendants of thos
 who were themselves devoted to tf
 religion of the order before the tin
 when Columbus discovered America.
 Sheep are an important factor ] Southern California. There are man
 portions of the country where the pa
 turage is better adapted to the growt
 of sheep than cattle. In the foot hil
 and along the mountain sides there . much succulent growth that sheep we'll on. The greatest profit tn;
 comes from the sheep is in the wo
 and growth of lambs. Sheep Shear1I . comes in the month of March and ear
 part of April, and that is the greate
 roundup of the year for the shepherd Out on the ranches wherever the f1oc
 with it's thousands may be, there tl