The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-10-31

cate the spot whence the river steals
and carries away the precious grains.
What it takes must necessarily be a
very small percentage of what it leaves
behind, and there is not the slightest
doubt that EIdoradOs that far sHrpass
in reality the early fables are yet to be
located in Venezuela. Nor are the
mineral resources of this region con-
fined to gold. Silver is known to exist
in large quantities, besides extensive
deposits Of copper, of quality superior
TO the Swedish product. Iron ore, like
gold. is found in every province of the
Orinoco region, and coal has been dis
covered in more than one hundred and
fifty localities, in veins from five to ten
feet thick. There is also lead and tin
and marble; and as everybody knows.
most important product of the OrinO-
co valley is the asphaltum, found in
many places in almost ineXhaustable
quantities. Even greater than all these
Is the value of the pastoral regions east
of the Orinoco The boundless plains
are flooded during the month of highest
water, but all the rest of the year they
are covered with a thick growth of sue
culent grasses that yield abundant food
for cattle. In this climate of perpetual
summer stock need no shelter at any
time Of the year; even when tropical
rains are let down in solid sheets cat
tie Craze without discomfort because
the falling water is never cold enough
to chill. Great herds of stock roam at
will over the grassy pampas, the own
ers rounding them up once or twice
year for the purpose of branding the
calves and selecting such animals as are
suitable for the slaughter-pen. The
last available statistics 1SSS) say that
upwards of nine million cattle Craze the
Orinoco llanos; and that for four years
berore that date they had been increas-
ing at the rate of a million year. If
they have kept on. increasing in the
same ratio during the subsequent fif-
teen years land there is no reason to
suppose they have noD, Venezuela has
certainly made good start in the cattle
business. In these days of cold storage
and swift steamship lines she ought to
be able to at least supply the western
hemisphere with beef at cheaper prices
than now prevail.
A country that will sustain cattle will
also keep sheep, and although VeneZ-
uela is not much given as yet to sheep
raising, there are perhaps twenty mil
lions of them in the country. In con-
templating those two great sources of
wealth it should be remembered that
both are in their infancy. True, cattle
and sheep were introduced by the Span
iards in the early days of the conquest,
but in the long war for independence
both species Of animals almost disap-
peared. being not only used for food by
the contendlng armies, but slaughtered,
thousands at a time, first by one side
and then by the other, to prevent their
opponents from getting supplies. The
same thing happened during the great
civil war of 1858, and in the few years
following the rehds were almost exter-
minated. Therefore the present mil
lions of stock are recent product, and
their number indicates what the indus
try is capable of under favorable condi-
tons. What Venezuela especially needs
to make it one of the richest countries
eternal revolutions and then capital,
skill and brains to develop it. There
are extraordinary chances for Ameri-
cans here-for those who have some
money to begin with, or age skilled in
agricultural or mechanical pursuits. It
is no place for either penniless or pro-
fessional men.
| Strange to say, the Venezuelans do
not raise anything that they need for
food. With millions of cattle on the
plains, not pound of butter is pro-
duced: everything is imported, even to
pork lard, flour, rice, conr-meal, etc.
If some of the failures in the over
crowded Chicken business" in the Uni
ted States were to come here with their
incubators, where everybody eats chick
en- at least once day and eggs as often,
they might be. doing something worth
while.
FANNIE B. WARD.