Stanislaus County, California

One of the great wheat counties is Stanislaus, in the heart of the San Joaquin valley. It extends from the foot-hill counties of Calaveras and Tuolumne to Santa Clara on the west, and is watered by the San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers. Most of the land is level as a barn floor, of exhaustless fertility, and is held in great ranches by owners who derive a princely income from the grain crops, that are seldom known to fail. The area of the county is 1,500 square miles, and the estimated population is 12,000; the United States census of 1880 gave the population as 8,751. Modesto, the county seat, is the center of one of the richest farming districts in the state, and though a young town, it has over 2,500 people. Other towns are Knight's Ferry, Oakdale, Hill's Ferry and Turlock. Wheat growing is the leading pursuit, but fruit-growing will soon dispute precedence with it. A very large acreage of fruit trees has been planted during the last five years. Even the citrus fruits flourish here, where frost is almost unknown. The deciduous fruits and grapes from Stanislaus are celebrated for their superior size and flavor. The assessed valuation of the county in 1889 was $17,000,000.

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Source: California State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1890, Volume II, R. L. Polk & Company, 1890.