Kings County
History
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California - History by Eugene L. Menefee and Fred A. Dodge - Historic Record Company - Los Angeles, California, 1913
CHAPTER XXVI
DAIRY INDUSTRY
No history of Kings county would be complete without mention of the dairy industry, and it was only four years prior to the organization of the county that the dairy industry was founded, in the year 1889, by a. few progressive ranchers. It was due to their foresight and persistent efforts that a co-operative company for the manufacture of cheese was formed and incorporated. At that time it was generally believed that climatic conditions in this part of the valley were such as to preclude the successful manufacture of dairy products commercially, but the new company erected a factory at Hanford and subsequently another factory was built in the Lakeside district, eight miles south. The Lakeside institution operated for several years, but was finally acquired by the Hanford company. The establishment of these factories inspired the ranchers to improve their stock, and the mongrel cows of the old home dairy days gave way to imported shorthorn Durham, Holstein, Jersey, Ayrshire and other breeds, so we can mark the beginning of the present extensive dairy business here to the advent of factory cheese-making. As it was soon learned that alfalfa was the great forage for the dairy, cheese making prospered, and in 1889 the two cheese factories passed into the ownership of A. B. Crowell, one of the county's first interested dairymen. In that year he made up into cheese 1700 pounds of milk per day. During the six years which followed, the patronage of the factories grew to 10,000 pounds of milk per day, and in the year 1902 the Hanford factory, which had then swallowed up the Lakeside plant, turned out 150,000 pounds of cheese. But in 1897, F. J. Peacock established a butter factory in the Dallas district, near where the town of Corcoran now stands. He subsequently established other butter-making plants, and so rapidly did the butter industry grow that in 1902 there were 4500 cows in the county, supplying cream to the factories, the Kings County Creamery alone paying out that year to the dairymen $120,000 for milk and cream. Finally the Hanford cheese factory was destroyed by fire, and the butter industry having grown more popular, absorbed the attention of the dairymen, and cheese making in the county has been since confined to small private plants, but an article of excellent grade is made for local consumption.
In 1903 a company was organized in Hanford for the condensation of milk. A factory was erected and equipped, but through some fault in the management the project was a failure.
The creamery business, however, has flourished until in 1911 the output of dairy products from the dairies of the county amounted to $1,574,250. There are five incorporated creameries in the county now, and others in prospect.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.