Morning journal and courier., 1884-09-09
CORREsPONDENCE.

CORRESPONDENCE.
 New NEexico-A Fine COuntry-The Grazing Understanding About the Cattle Business-The Hell Ranch and the Fort Bascom Cattle Raising Company.
 LA CINTA, San Miguel Co.,, New Mexico, August 15. ] To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Having been for some months roaming about this country, it occurs to me that some of your readers may be interested to know what kind of place this territory is, which people are accustomed to regard so remote from civilization, but which is in fact only some four days travel from New York. Be fore I came here I, in common with many eastern people, had a sort of idea that New
 Mexico was something like the great desert of Sahara, almost as inaccessible and fully as
 barren. Of course 8 small amount of thought on the subject and little investigation would have shown me my mistake, but nothing
 could have so completely revolutionized all
 my ideas of the country as seeing it with my
 own eyes and travelling over it has done.
 Taking my seat in a drawing room car in
 New York, I was carried along through a
 succession of cities, towns and cultivated
 fields, seeing few evidences of frontier life
 until many miles beyond the Missouri river
 in Kansas, where the country, being less
 adapted to agriculture, becomes more and
 more devoted to cattle raising, an industry
 more certain and apparently much more lu-
 crative than agriculture, almost any other
 occupation, can be in it's most favored locall-
 ties It gives one an exalted idea of our
 country's enormous resources, as well as its
 beauty and it's grandeur, to take this trip.
 We are accustomed to say in general terms
 that we have the greatest country on the face
 of the earth; that we raise corn and cattle
 enough to feed the whole of Europe, and have an almost infinite capacity for raising
 more, but we cannot have the fact brought home to us in all it's force unless we have
 seen with our own eyes the regions where the corn and the cattle are raised
 After four days journey in the comforta-
 ble manner have mentioned 1 arrived at the
 city of Las Vegas New Mexico, on the Atch-
 ison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, and
 there commenced my trip by wagon into the
 country Instead of the barren region had
 expected to find, the whole country is covered
 with rich verdure, and is the finest growing
 country that have ever seen, and I have
 seen no barren land here whatever. This
 county, San Miguel is the best in the terri
 tory for stock raising, which is almost the
 only industry. It has the best grass and
 shelter for cattle and is the best watered,
 the Canadian or Red river, Ute creek and La Cinta creek all affording an abundant supply of running water at all seasons of the year; while the fine timber growing on the river bottoms and the extensive canyons in the sides of the table lands afford safe and se- cure retreat for the cattle in case of storms, which by the way, rarely occur during the winter season, and are therefore seldom cold. It must be understood that the land in this county is composed of mesa or table land and low lands, both covered with rich grass and equally good for grazing purposes. These mesas are of irregular formation at the sides and are usually fiat on the top and covered with scattering cedafs. Some of these table lands are seven hundred feet above the gene ral surface of the country, which is all very high above the sea level Cattle roam over them throughout the entire year, requiring neither feeding nor shelter at any season. The grass, self-cured in this dry atmosphere, giving an abundant supply of the best of hay in winter and the formation of the country affording adequate shelter. Neither do the cattle require any salting, as the alkah in the soil supplies the place of salt. All these ad- vantages make this country a herdsman's
 paradise, and, judging from the number of cattle 1 have seen, l should say that the herdsman had found it out. There are many eonpanies and individuals here engaged in stock raising, some of them with little or no land of their own, and depending on the land of others or on the public domain for ! their feeding ground. So far they are mak- ing money very rapidly, as indeed they can not very well help doing except through the grossest mismanagement. But as the bus1- ness has proved so lucrative and the herds are increasing so rapidly, fear the time Will shortly come when they will be shut off from these lands by the owners or at least, be ex- cluded from the streams, without access to which the business cannot be carried on. So far there have been both water and land \ enough for all, but this style of things must inevitably come to an end, and I should not advise anyone to embark in stock raising to any considerable extent without owning the land he occupies and controlling his water supply
 There are several individuals and compa- nies who do own their lands in fee The most prominent among these latter is West Haven gentleman well known in your com munity. He owns some six hundred and if ty thousand acres of fine grazing lands bor- dering for many miles upon the streams l have mentioned, and has many thousand head of the finest cattle in the territory, all of excellent graded stock. I have witnessed several tFround ups" on this ranch, some of them containing as many as four thousand head, and never saw finer cattle. The cows would compare favorably with those have seen on fancy dairy farms at the East The cattle on this ranch are sold on the ground, and are mostly taken to Kansas City and corn fed on the farms of Kansas and Missouri, from whence they find their way to Chicago and the East. Some twelve thousand calves
 have been branded in this herd during the
 past year, and the number increases from
 year to year in 8 geometrical ratio All calves are branded twice a year, spring and
 fall, before they leave the corns. Everyone owning cattle has brand which is recorded
 and is known throughout the country. Ali
 ter calf has been branded it is safe, as all
 stock men are united in protecting the cattle
 of each other The brand used on the range
 I have mentioned is bell, and the ranch IS
 called the Bell ranch There is another com
 pany located some miles distant and owning
 several thousand acres of land. This IS
 known as ftthe three P's'' from the fact that
 three P's are used ;n branding. In this lat
 ter company are some Brooklyn, N. Y., gen.
 tlemen They have only been in the busi-
 ness for few years, but have been very sue
 cessful, already owning herd of several
 thousand cattle, which is rapidly growing,
 besides paying large dividends to their stock
 holders from the cattle which they have
 turned off. There is also the Fort Bascom
 Cattle Raising company recently organized in
 your city. This company is just starting,
 having purchased some ffty-one thousand
 acres of land and five thousand head of cat
 tie from MT. Waddingham, the owner of the
 Bell ranch. The land of this company Dor
 ders upon the Canadian river for long dis
 tance and is remarkably fine tract of gra-
 zing land The herd just being turned over
 to the company consists, besides the oens'
 steers and yearlings, of some thlrty-nVe
 hundred cows in bearing, which, as the per centage of loss and barrenness IS very sInall'
 should result in rapid increase.
 Diseases among the cattle here are almost