McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-11-01
Cattle Ranchlng In South America.

Cattle Ranchlng In South America.
The native rancheros of South Amer
lea are, as a rule, an amiable and quiet
race, whether creole or half-breed;
their wants are few, their tastes simple,
and their vices insignificant. They
breed vast families of children and are
indulgent, though somewhat whimsical
parents and masters. However rich
they may be in their hocks, they are
generally poor in purse, for they kill
or sell their stock only to meet their
needs. A man on the South American
plains is said to be worth not so much
much money but SO many head of cat
tie, and it is his pride to add to the
| count.
| He keeps regular census of his
herds by perforated boards into which
pegs are stuck. Some ranches have
their walls almost covered with these
| boards, and the master will keep peg
| ging them up as if he was engaged in a
game of cribbage with nature, and con-
stantly winning. AS rule each peg
represents a single animal. We only
found one rancho where the count was
Kept with pegs for the thousands, the
hundreds, and the single heads. This
ranchero had spent some years in Trim
| idad in his youth, and was regarded by
| all who knew HIM as an exceptionally
advanced and brilliant man; vet he
| could only write his nameIin printed let
tiers, and could not read written letters
at all.
There are, of course, upon the plains
men who breed cattle with some intelli-
gence and energy. These are educated
natives or foreigners. With them the
business is scientifically pursued; thew
have their regular Strengthening seasons
and make all they can by the trade.
Their houses, though constructed on
the general plan of all tropical or SUBJ
tropical dwellings,, are paved and floor
ed, kept clearly and filed with COM
forts. Their owners 1--we on the best
they can raise and buy, and keep their
motley armies of followers as profit
ably busy as they can DE kept. In
short, intelligence and the energy of
born intelligence, raise the standard of
this class OF cattle ranching to the best
level OF which it is capal!, But men
who form this class are .ceptions to
the great rule. For one L..ia who keeps
books there are hundreds " no use the
numbering boards; for one man who
tries to breed his cattle at their best, to
utilize their products in every form and
to enjoy their uses after the fashion of
civilization, there are thousands who
have no aspirations above that of living
with as little work as possible, and
using their wealth only to satisfy the
rudest demands nature makes on them,
Beside the house is always found an
extensive corral, or pen, walled in with
strong posts. Here the cattle to be
slaughtered and those kept in the neigh
borhood of the rancho are confined. In
front of the corral is the Strengthening
place. This is simply a couple of posts
to which the doomed bovine is hauled
up by the hinder legs to have its throat
cut. You can scent a Strengthening
place before you see rancho. At kill
ing time you can further distinguish it
at distance by the buzzards lowering
overhead. The buzzards dispute with
the dogs for the offal of the butchery.
and they always make rousing fights
over it between them.
At Strengthening seasons q sort of
mushroom growth of fiimsy, construct
ed out of poles, tied together with
thongs of rawhide, rises around the
rancho. 1t is here that the beef is dried
OR ''jerked." After the animal has
been slaughtered, the hide is pegged
out on the grass to dry, wooden peg
being driven through each corner of the
hide to keep it from shrinking. The
meat is then cut into strips; salt is well
rubbed into it and it Is thrown upon the
fO 1,E- in fln L. Il
and children of the rancho being kept
busy driving the buzzards from it.
When it is dry, jerked beef is as black
and tough as rubber. 1t can be boiled
sufficiently soft to eat, but it is serious
eating at the best.
The horns were formerly dead loss
to the rancher. but of late years they
too are preserved for sale. The skulls
and bones are left where they may hap
pen to fall, unless the ranchero is par
ticularly methodical. Then they are
placed into heap out OF ihe way, until
in time they become mountainous
monument to the business OF the place.
There are to be found perfect mounds
of this kind which, in the course of
years, become covered with a deposit of
earth, and dressed in grass until their
original character can only be discoy-
cred by digging into them. In one
section of Venezuela, an entire lake has
been filled up with bones from the sur
rounding ranches, and is now dry ba-
sin sown with cleaning skeletons, the
aspect of whichis indescribablv hideous
to every one but those who are native,
and to the manor born.-Alfred Trum-
BILE in American Agrlculturist for No
vember.