Arizona republican., 1899-03-31
STOCK RAISING
By Will C. Barnes, Chairman of tn,
 Live Stock Sanitary Board.

S~~SC~~SSSVS
 From the earliest settlement of this territory down to the present day, the business of raising livestock has been only second to the mining industry.
 The writer has no great amount of data at hand to give any definite ideas as to conditions that existed previous to 1SS0 The early immigrants as far back as 1850 and 1852 were told that the whole country had at one time been covered with great herds of horses and cattle, but that the raids of the Apaches had completely broken up the business and at that time 1850) there were very few cattle and horses in the territory.
 As we all know that California and Mexico were simply covered with great herds of livestock in the early years of this century, which were allowed to roam where they pleased, and were val uable only for their hides and tallow, it is not hard to believe that the same conditions prevailed in our own ter ritory, which was at that time a veri- table terra incognita and all under Mexican rule.
 The early travellers along the south ern route from the east to California saw, along the water courses in south
 
 ruins of extensive haciendas, with huge that where now was all ruin and des- olation had once been teeming with animal life, and when asked where they had all gone and what was the cause of their going, the MeXicans merely pointed to the north and said, Los Indios, Los Indios.''
 But with the subjugation of the Apaches and their being confined to reservations, the coming of the rail roads and the settling up of the coun- try, the stock raiser, who is after all the pioneer of the west, took new heart and the whole country was re- stocked. As early as 1866 or 1867 the first cattle were driven into the terri tory from Texas but they were mainly for filling military contracts, as the Apaohes were still far too numerous to allow of any very extensive range work. But in 1880 the great herds of cattle in western Texas had overrun their own ranges and were seeking fresh pastures. Arizona and New Mexico were then almost virgin fields. Miles and miles of glorious p:airies, covered with the finest of grasses, browse and best of all the alfileria of the desert, offered an unlimited eouD- try for them to roam over A few herds were brought into southern Ari- Zona by trail but the finishing of the two transcontinental railroads across the territory in the year 1881 brought the ranges of Arizona and Texas into close connection and thousands upon thousands of cattle and horses were brought from that state to be turned | loose on the ranges of our territory.
 Besides this the eastern states con tributed heavily in tho shape of blood l ed stock, car after car of thorough | bred and graded bulls being brought from Missouri, Iowa and other stock | raising states. With the hardy, rust ling long-horns from Texas as a base the stockmen of Arizona bred up a grade of cattle here in Arizona that to- day are noted all over the west for | their hardness and ability to stand | heat and cold drought and flood, to | take on flesh when turned in an alfalfa | feed lot or to pull through hard | winter bumped up on the sunny side | of cedar tree and bring a good | healthy calf crop in the spring.
 No mountains are too rough or too high for them to climb No water too | for them, no grass or browse too dry or thorny for them to devour. I have seen old cows on the ranges of southern Arizona get down on their knees to crawl in under a mesquite tree 10 reach the beans scat tered on the ground beneath it.
 Put them on the prairies of Montana and they grow to immense size, on the rich grasses of that state alone. Put them in the Kansas feed lots and they eat hay and corn from the day they are unloaded. They are, in a word ,ARt nome anywhere and everywhers1f If t is plenty they laugh a1dnai1
 f it is the sorrows Gs6a