The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-11-13
Cattle Ranehing 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 indul-
gent, though somewhat whimsical par
ents and masters. However rich they
may be in their flocks, 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 money but so
many head of cattle, 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 pegging them
up as if he was engaged in game of
cribbage with nature, and constantly
winning. As rule each peg represents
single animal We only found one
ranch where the count was kept with
pegs for the thousands, the hundreds
and the single heads. This ranchero
had spent some years in Trinidad m his
youth, and was regarded by all who
knew him as an exceptionally advanced
and brilliant man; yet he could only
write his name in printed letters, 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; they
have their regular slaughtering seasons
and make all they can by the trade.
Their houses, though constructed on the
general plan of all tropical or sub-trop-
zeal dwellings, are paved and floored,
kept clearly and filled with comforts.
Their owners live on the best they can
raise and buy, and keep their motley
armies of followers as proftably busy as
they can be kept. In short, intelligence
and the energy born of intelligence raise
the standard of this class of cattle
ranching to the best level of which it is
capable. But men who form this class
are exceptions to the great rule. For
one man who keeps books there are
hundreds who 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 thou
sands who have no aspirations above
that of living with as little work as pos
sible, and using their wealth only to
satisfy the rudest demands which nature
makes on them.
Besides, the house is always found an
extensive corral, or pen, walled in with
strong posts. Here the cattle to be
slaughtered and those kept ia the
neighborhood of the ranch are confined.
In front of the corral is the slaughter
ing place. This is simply q couple of
posts to which the doomed bovine is
hauled up by the hinder legs TO have its
| throat cut. You can scent q slaughter
ing place before you see a ranch. At
killing time you can further distinguish
it at a 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, a sort OF
mushroom growth of fiimsy frames, con-
structed out of poles, tied together with
thongs of rawhide rises around the
ranch. 1t his here that the beef is dried
or ''ierked." 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 il
then cut into strips; salt. is well rubbed
1 into it and it is thrown upon the frames
to dry in the sun, the old folks and chill
dren of the ranch being kept busy driv.
ing the buzZards from it. When it i,
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 los;
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 arr
placed into q, heap out of the way. unit
in time they become a mountainous
monument to the business of the place
There are to be found perfect mound
of this kind which, in the course o
years, become covered with a deposit o
earth, and dressed in grass until thei
, original character can only be discovered
by digging into them. In one section
Of Venezuela, an entire lake has beel
filled up with bones from the surround
inc ranches, and is now dry basil
sown with cleaning skeletons, the as
pect of which is indescribably hideou
to every one but those who are native
: and to the manor born.-Atfred Irum
bic, in american AgricuIturiSt,