The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-11-14

E-zzssss eS-as'-F - of decadencc
owing 90 the poor returns of the past
few years, but it is certain that it will
now take on boom.
The most conservative recent est
mates of the cattle industry of Arizona
and New Mexico put the invested
capital at $50, 100000 This includes
the value OF the ranges and the cost
Of cattle, ranch houses. cowboys
horses, and n thousand and one articles
that comprise an up-to-date working
cattle range. All grades of cattle
bring very profitable prices now, and
the ranges and cowboys have seldom
been in better spirits. There are a
score of mon, living in rude adobe
houses with mud floors and having
few OF the modern convcniences and
comforts OF life, who have made great
fortunes in cattle rauching in the
Southwest territories in the last thirty
years. About dozen Of these men
have property worth easily from 81, .
200, 600 TO $4,000, 900 each, and sell
cattle each year for 500, coo and even
$50, 900. John Akers, of New Mexico.
who sold over 800, 600 worth OF cattle
last year, and whose landed posses
sions arc over 7O,O00 acres, lives in
an adobe house with his Mexican wife
and nine children. He cannot read
or write, and has been out Of the terri
tory bat twice IN twenty years.
StockraisinS in the West began to
be business at about the close of the
Civil War, when meat, as we'll as other
kinds of food, increased so much in
price. The Mexican ranchers in Texas
owned immense herds OF semi-wild
cattle OF inferior breed, which roamed
over the prairies in herds of from fifty
to one hundred thousand, of little
value to their owners in the absence
of n market. When beef began to be
scarce at tho North, few Govern
ment contractors drove some small
lunches of cattle from Texas over the
weary trail which has since become
historic, for tho use of the Northern
armies. In those days steers could
be bought for six dollars, and sold at
the end of their two or three months
journey for thirty-fv The profits
were enormous; the secret leaked out:
men with large capital aud unfettered
by Government contracts took UP the
traffic, and until the easy going Texan
rancherOs discovered what profits were
being made, and "cut things finer"
capital was doublod in few months,
More than one-helf of Arizona's area
Offers good grazing There is no in
tense cold, very little building of
barns or corrals is necessary, nor is it
Indispensable to store winter food.
Black and white gamma grass, bunch
and mesquite grasses, grow on plateau
and valley, mesa and mountain so
nbundautlY that after the rains of July
and August the country rolls billowy
sea Of living green. Gamma grass is
particularly nutritious.
Stock-raising in the Southwest tor
ritOries, where the conditions for the
industry are so favorable, and where
so little capital ia required, is an at
tractive occupation. The intending
stocbman, supposing him to have
about $4,000 capital, either takes
"squatter's right by building a hut
on unsurveyed land, or buys 100 acres
from the Government ut q nominal
price. a house need not cost more
than Sl0O. Provisions bought, there
is no expense but the wages of the
cowboys, each one Of whom, for $50
monthly pay, will take care of about
$50 cattle.
Cowboys may be divided into two
classes-those recruited from Texas
and other States on the eastern sloDe.
and Mexicans from the Southwestern
region. MeXicaus are uurivallel rs
cowboys splendid riders, hardy, born
to the business-but they have n bad
reputation, and are quarrclsomo and
unreliable. Americans arc perhaps
less skilled, but they are more order
ly. The cowboy tracks his animals as
Indians do game; dismouutiug. he
leads his pony aud follows patiently
faint tracks ia the which. after
all, may prove TO be those of unshod
ponies
The most important matter for the
stOckmau il how TO get his cattle. lie
can buy them con the range which
is tho quickest but the most expensive
way. The cattle arc bought so many
head, "more or less, but this mode
leaves q good many openings for sharp
viitej guile. TO which the novice NAV
fall q victim. The best way for the
newly arrived settler is 20 make con.
tract with some responsible drover for
n number of cattle breed and ace
specified, abOnt scveuty-Gve per cent.
Of the cows iO have calves, the pur-
chaser to be free 20 reject any animals
not in good condition when delivered
at his ranch.