Page 60 - LLR-Exploration II

Besides the milk cows, over 2,000 head of steers, calves and young
cattle are kept on these two ranches, the steers, with the
superannuated cows, being turned out for the beef. The calves are all
raised, the heifers which come in at the age of two years, and
sometimes sooner, being kept for milkers. The hogs, fed mostly on the
whey, and which were formerly shopped alive on the steamers to San
Francisco, are now slaughtered and cured on the ranches, by which
plan much larger profits are realized than before.

The success that has attended the Steele Brothers, of whom there are
three, a cousin also being associated with them, furnishes a notable
example of what may be accomplished in California, through the
industry and intelligent application of labor, even when parties begin
with small means. These men commenced the dairying business some
years ago at Rock Valley, Sonoma County, having at the start but
fifteen or twenty cows, and with but limited means besides; their
present large possessions and property having been all gained since,
Figure 29: Cured Meats
through their own exertions, governed by economy and good
management.