Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-04-24
A SUPERB HACIENDA.
The San Augustin Ranch of Messrs. Schus.
ter Described


Augustin ranch IS from lengthy article In
the Santa Fe New Mexican and will doubt
less be of interest to stockmen:
Twenty miles southeast of the cities of
e Paso and Juarez, on the right side of the
Rio Grande. district of Braves, state of
Chihuahua, lay the San Augustin estates of
| the Messrs. Schuster & Company Cross
ing the FL Paso bridge three hours drive
over q good wagon road will land you here,
or if you prefer, the trip can be made in
Al hour and twenty minutes by taking the
Texas and Pacific or Sunset railway.
alighting at Elizario ard driving eight miles
across the country. There are ia. 800 acres
in this tract. This is divided up as follows:
Acres.
Under cultivation. Observation-Disclosures. $500
Under ditch but not yet farmed. .. 1900
- g but not yet cleared or Gull
tlValeu .....-'; 5,oo oo
Cultivable land not yet under ditch. . IL, 500
Grazing lands. Observation-Disclosures. 81, 600
Timber lands LOCO
Or the 5000 acres of land at present cult
waited seyen-eights of it is incloSed with a
substantial barb wire fence. There are
over 100 miles of irrigating bitches on the
place, the main ditch leading on the right
bank of the Rio Grande and having an av-
erage width OF thirteen feet carrying
volume of water three to three and half
feet deep The estate is divided into three
sections. as in fact 1t is too large for one
overseer TO manage. Its frontage on the
river is about seventeen miles, whence it
gradually slopes back and toward the
north six miles to the foot hills. The
valley land is rich sandy loan, very
fertile and productive, and here stretch
out for miles the great green fields of wheat,
rye barley, corn, alfalfa, sugar cane, etc,
all of which are now growing luXuriantly,
forming an attractive picture to the eye and
redOient with the perfumes of spring. Last
year the estate cultivated: Acres
IN wheat. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. lOO
In corn Observation-Disclosures. $50
III dLIa4Id. ......,..,..-...... -5o
In sugar cane. Observation-Disclosures. lOO
In DafleV Sou
There are $4,000 worth of buildings on
the place. Mr.. Bernard Schuster's ranch
| residence is a substantial and commodious
structure, fitted up with all modern i'm
prOyements, located near the center of the
estate, and q little way off is a structure
200 feet long and fifty feet deep, the home
of the overseer and his principal attendants
for it takes a small army of men to run q
plantation like thiS-and here and there at
convenient locations about the estate are
little groups of dwellings occupied by the
farm hands and their families. There are
1G5 laoorers on the place, and these with
their families make the resident population
or the estate about 800 souls. During the
farming season each man is given tract
of land to cultivate on shares, and usually
this amounts to enough TO keep him busy
three days in each week, the other three
days he works as farm hand for the own
ers of the estate, and receives therefor
seventy-fve cents per day in the coin of
Mexico.
Employer and employe carry on business
much after the old Southern plantation
style, only here settlements are made
twice year, in August and December, at
N-hi rp-
spectively have been harvested.
On the premises is general store where
everything required on the place is sold,
and this does business of about $40, 900
annually There is also a perfectly
equipped modern steam roller Touring and
crist mill with the very latest improve
ments attached), that is in itself perfect
| bonanza This plant has a capacity of $50
barrels of -four in every twenty-four hours.
1t occupies a three-StOry building and is
fitted out with the latest improved patent
rollers (the only mill of the kind within
| 80 miles in any direction), and its owners
ENJOY almost monopoly as far as concerns
the manufacture of the better grade bread
stuffs.
On the @, 900 acres of grazing land some
one thousand two hundred head of stock is
now kept, though there is grass and range
and water enough for from ten thousand
to fifteen thousand head. One point noted
system for catching water Scooped out of
the earth in natural depressions are tanks
| or catch-basins, costing very little to make,
and here the waters that comes in the rainy
season are caught and stored with the
greatest success, completely putting to rout
the Colorado and New Mexico bugbear idea
that. because of too rapid evaporation,
storage reservoirs can never be made sue
cess. In these tanks the water thus caught
has never given out, and the stock have free
access to it at all times
As for timber lands, which are valuable
here chiefly as fuel, there are 1000 acres,
and these contain so 600 cords of wood.
asked Mr.. Schuster to prepare for me n
conservative estimate of the profits OF
farming in this part of the Rio Grande val
ley. thinking such figures would be of spe-
cial interest to some of your readers. This
is what he has given me:
Estimated profits on the following crops