Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-02-24
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO.

RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO.
ern -Prairie. .-~- Ese.l
Sheep raising is one of the great in
terests of Colorado, writes q Sun CORE
spondent. Mexican ewes are bought
for $1.75 to 50 per head, and crossed
with Cotswolds to increase the size.
South Downs and full Merinos are
brought from the States to improve the
blood and bring the wool up to the finer
grades. The grasses of the prairie are
nutritious, and the abundance of space
allows vast herds to find maintenance
without the expense of fencing or cutting
nay for the winter. There are several
varieties of grass that follow one another
in succession, some curling in the sun,
and although brown and dry at the top,
remaining full of nourishment. Near
Trinidad gentleman found in an acre
of prairie sixteen different kinds of grass
The pinons, low species of pine and
cedar, grows near the edges of the
canyon, and affords protection for the
sheep from the storms. In the canyons
tie sheep find water. These are deep,
open seams in the earth, or rock, riven
apart ages ago by some mighty convul-
sion of nature. They are filed with
underbush, evergreens, wild plum
trees, and cottonwood, and generally
have water holes, and sometimes springs
of pure water. In times of long rains,
or of snow melting on the mountains,
they are found with swift, muddy
streams. They are wild and romantic
in appearance and of various depths,
some even reaching on the rivers 1000
feet. One man can care for flock Of
LOCO sheep, but two are required for
more than that number-one to super
wise, keep the camp, cook, and watch
the sheep at night, while the other herds
them by day, the latter receiving from
Sl2 to SIS per month and rations, and
the former getting from $40 to $25 per
month. IF 'the:owner cares for his own
sheep he of course saves this amount
and generally losses less sheep, having
the vigilance of ownership.
Some sheep men spend the larger part,
ii not all their time in camp, moving
wherever the pasture is most inviting, IN
winter on the prairie and in summer on
the mountains or in one of the national
parks. As two men can herd 1000
sheep as well as 1900, the cost OF run
ming large herds is not proportionately
great. More hands are needed in the
lambing season, and when shearing is
necessary, professed shearers must be
hired to cut the fleece. The preference
is given to California shearers, they
handling the sheep better snd sheariDg
closer than Mexicans. The Californian
holds the sheep with one hand, between
his knees, and shears with the other,
while the Mexican ties and throws down
the sheep, sitting on them, and fire.
quently cutting the skin. The Mexican
gets five cents fleece, the Californian
six cents. The average weight of Mexi-
can fleece is two and one-half pounds,
and sells at from twenty to twenty-five
cents per pound. The average weight
of improved wool per fleece is from three
to four pounds, and sells from twenty
five to thirty cents per pound. There
is difference OF opinion with regard to
shearing sheep before or after the birth
OF the lambs, which are born in early
spring, about May. If shearing takes
place after the weather gets hot, the
wool, having absorbed much grease,
weighs heavier and is therefore more
profitable to the seller. Lambs are
taken from their mothers in September
and formed with the wethers into a
separate herd, seeking their own main
tenance. They are driven out before or
after the sheep in early morning, with
herder, till they are thoroughly weaued,
requiring about four or five months,
when they are again united to the large
herd.
The homes of people in this country
are called ranches. They are generally
3 uilt of logs or adobe and sometimes of
both. The adobe is formed of peculiar
kind of earth, found in the canyons and
other localities, and when mixed with
cut hay and water forms a mud that
hardens with exposure to sun, wind and
rain. The process of making adobe mud
is usually performed by Mexicans, who
cut the hay into short lengths, and beat
the whole mass of earth, hay and water
with hoe, and also tread it thoroughly
with their naked feet. Both men and
women apply it to the logs by throwing
large ha2dfuls, worked into balls, on the
wall, and then smooth it with their
hands-a dirty process, but resulting in
an even, fiat surface, resembling gray
store, which will, but seldom does, re-
ceive a coat of whitewasb. Another style
of ranch is formed of adobe bricks, the
mud being mixed in the above manner
and burnt in the sun, and being set up
like ordinary bricks, the same mud while
wet answering the purpose Of mortar.
The whole, including the roof and chin
ney. is covered with adobe. There are
also wooden cottages, with shingle roofs,
but they are very expensive, the lumber
being hauled by OK teams. The ranch
is often composed of only one room,
where all the housekeeping fiourishes in
the most approved bachelors style, the
larger proportion of ranch people being
young men seeking their fortunes. They
os,,Sr D.,