Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-01-04
Governor 0tero's Estimate of Profits
in Wool.
For the Right Man Who is Able to Get the
Right Location Here is a Business
That Seems Sure and Is Not
So Very Slow. :,

and figures out a profit in it that must
men of Ohio and Vermont. He has. / n
short, to use an expression familiar to
the newspaper men of the west, given
the sheep business such a write-up as it
has rarely had before.
According to the governor, after de-
Quoting from the rs, 900, 900 acres all
told the 5000, 900 under cultivation, the
5000, 900 of land grants, and the esti-
mated millions of mountains not fit for
grazing, the territory contains mot less
than IS, 900, coo acres peculiarly adapted
to sheep pasturage"-so peculiarly
adapted, in fact, that lit is estimated
that two sheep can be supported on each
acre of land; so the public lands of New
Mexico can support ITO, 100000, or
enough to easily supply all the wool
consumed in the United States, estimat-
ed at $50, 900, 600 pounds"
Instead of finding any such number
as this in the territory, however, there
are at most but 1000, 900, although "the
present year has been the most favor
able to the sheep industry ever known.
The lamb crop was SO per cent of the
ewes" and 5000, 900 of the number are
ewes, (which may be safely relied on to
produce next year 1000, 900 lambs, or
662G per cent"
1t appears that ''the people of New
Mexico are unsurpassed in the manage
ment of sheep herds" and that is to say
that the sheep men are descendants Of
the original Spanish-American stock,
who for hundreds of years have had no
other business than that of sheep rails
ing. THE sheep are run in f1ocks of
from 1900 to 5000" Each flock re-
quires three men, or two men and one
boy, and two or three dogs" while an
owner having a number of focks needs
an Oyerseer to each group of three
iocks.
The outfit for each flock includes a
camp kit, a supply of provisions, and a
donkey to carry all. This is because
1.-THE sheep are grazed from place to
place within the range" ''The dogs
and men constantly remain with the
sheep the whole year"
On figuring 1T out it appears that ''the
cost of caring for a flock of 1000 for a
year is SIS per month for each of the
two men and $40 for a boy or $500 per
year: their rations and that of the dogs,
part of which is mutton from the 1ocks.
cost ST. per month each, or S432; extra
men to attend lambing II month, $50
shcarers at 3 cents a fleece, $120; other
incidental expenses $21S, or 5 1,4O0 per
flock of 1000, or 80 cents per head.
The return from the flock is estimated
at five pounds per head-2O, 900 pounds
of wool, which, sat the present price, IA
CENTS" gives So, 800 cash return from the
flock, or a profit of 81 400 clear money.
Sheep ARE now selling at from SIS
to 80 a head" SO an outside estimate OF
the capital invested in the sheep is 49,
600.
However, not all the profit in the
sheep is found in the sales of wool, for
the governor estimates that while the
flock would lose through estray, killed
by coyotes and other causes eco head a
year, the increase from lambs would be
2 ,00n nr 8 net increase of of 1900 head.
These would include both ewes and
wethers, the wethcr being of small
value, but the cash value of the lambs
would exceed the profit on the sale of
wool by several hundred dollars. On
the whole. according to the governors
figures, an industrious farmer having
the money to invest in such a flock Of
sheep and the knowledge needed to
take care of them could got more money
out of 1000 sheep here in New Mexico
than he could make on a down east
farm worth three times the price of the /
flock.
While it is certain that Governor Otero |
took most of his figures from the actual
experience of men in the sheep business,
there are certain facts not mentioned
by him which a down east farmer ought
to consider before he comes to the desert
to 60 into the sheep business.
In the first place, there is the amount
of public land fit for sheep. There are,
indeed, 81, 900, 900 acres of it, and it is
public land, but the man who should
undertake herding sheep on it at will,
choosing his W locality, would find
such trouble awaiting him as he had
never experienced in the east, though
he had had no end of lawsuits over line
A glance at the map accom-
panying the governors report will prove
very instructive on this subject of pub
lie land fit for sheep grazing. The
water courses and even the springs to be
found in the territory are to a very large
extent marked thereon in red ink.
The breadth of land without a red line
on it looks small IN the map, but in fact
it is very wide. Take, as a sample, the
space between Magdalena and the
Mogollon range and the Datils and the
Black range. Here lies the San Agus-
tin plain, a region wei which the writer
travelled not long ago. 1t is a three
days drive from Magdalena, where
there is a very good well, to running
water in the Rio San Francisco beyond
the Mogollons. On this route there are
four springs, according to the map
two in the Datils, the Horse spring and
the Patterson's. There is another,
however, that the map does not. show
in all five springs along a route con-
siderably more than 100 miles long. |
the entire San Agustin plain,
the springs are more than IS miles apart
on the average.
Now, If all the springs were open to
public use the farmer from the east
could pasture a whole lot of sheep on
the San Augustin plain. for they can
feed back IL or Is miles from water, but
as a matter of fact all the available
are inclosed with barbed-wire
fence and lie On private land long since
patented, a v only the Horse spring,
and that, though not inclosed, is claimed.
Even If the grass of this region would
support two sheep per acre, the man
from the east might see his animals
perish of thirst If he wei got them to
the pasture. Watering sheep is a regu-
lar business there. The spring owners
will let a travelling herd drink once If its
owner will give them their pick Of one
eve from each 1000 sheep watered.
Then as to the estimate of two sheep
per acre, it is very likely true that the
territory as a whole might on the aver
age support that number; in a good sea-