THE AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE : LA PALMA : Progress Put Dairy Cows Out to Pasture

Signs of this city’s agricultural heritage have vanished in the 40 years since a group of dairy farmers incorporated the community under the name Dairyland.

The last of the dairy farms that once dominated this community disappeared years ago--replaced by tract houses.

In 1965, city leaders even changed its name from Dairyland to La Palma.

For the first half of the century, La Palma and surrounding communities made up a vast cow-grazing area that stretched from Cerritos to Cypress.

As suburban growth began to encroach the area, dairy farmers organized to preserve the town’s farmland, said Pamela Gibson, La Palma’s city manager.

The farmers won cityhood for Dairyland in 1955 and attempted in vain to hold off residential development. For a while, the city required property sites to be at least five acres, according to the book “A Hundred Years of Yesterdays.”

But state tax laws favored residential development over farming, and slowly, the dairies gave way to housing tracts.

As more residents moved to the city, the remaining farms were viewed by some to be more of an irritation than a treasure--especially during the summer, when the cows smelled bad and attracted flies.

Gibson said one La Palma council candidate even distributed fly-swatters that bore the phrase: “Vote for me and you won’t have to use one of these anymore.”

By 1973, just one dairy farm remained in the city, according to the book.