The Republican journal., 1902-11-06

Blllousness is cured by the use of DR..
Pierce S Pleasant Pelleta
more gold somewhere up the stream. it
is merely question of time when
very rich placer and quartz gold mines
will be opened IN the hills and plains of
the interior. 1t needs only patient in
telllgence to locate the spot whence the
river steals and carries away the pre-
ciouS grains. What it takes must ne
cessarlly be a very small percentage of
what it leaves behind and there is not
the slightest doubt that Eldorados
that far surpass in reality the early
fables, are yet to be located in Vene-
Zuela. Nor are the mineral resources
of this region confined to gold. Silver
is known to exist in large quantities,
besides extensive deposits of copper,
OF a quality superior to the Swedish
product. Iron ore. like gold, is found
III every province of the Orinoco re
gion, and coal has been discovered in
more than one hundred and fifty local
tiles, i'll veins from five to ten feet
thick. There is also lead and tin and
marble; and, as everybody knoWs,a most
important product of the Orinoco val
ley is the asphaltum found in many
places in almost ineXhausuble quantiti-
es. Even greater than all these is the
value of the pastoral regions east OF the
Drinoco. The uoundleSs plains are food
ed during the month OF highest water
but all the rest Of the year they are
covered with a thick growth of succu-
lent 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 az
Will over the grassy pampaS, The owners
rounding them up once OF twice Il year
for the purpose of branding the calves
and selecting such animals as are suit
able for the slaughter-pen. The last
available statistics lSso say that up
wards of nine million cattle Craze the
Orinoco llanos; and that for four years
before that date they had been increas-
ing at the rate of million year. If
they had kept on in the same ratio dur
ing the subsequent fifteen years, and
there is no reason to suppose they have
not Venezuela has certainly made a
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 no "
prevail.
A country that will sustain cattle will
also keep sheep, and although Venezue-
la 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 i'll their infancy. True, cattle
and sh aep were introduced by the Span
ia1ds 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 contending armies, but slaughtered,
thousands at 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 1888, and in the few years
following, the herds 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-
lions. What Venezuela specially
needs to make it one of the richest
countries in the world is first cessation
from the eternal revolutions and then
capital, skill and brains to develop it.
There are extraordinary chances fol
"A uClC-lOl lllOSS WHO nav
some money to begin with, or are skill
ed in agricultural or mechanical pur-
suits. 1t is no place for either penni-
less or professional men.
Strange to say, the Venezuelans dc
not raise anything that they need for
food. With millions of cattle on the
plains, not a pound of butter is produc-
ed; everything is imported, even to
pork, lard, flour, rice, corn-meal, etc.
If some of the failures in the over
crowded "chicken- business" in the
United States, were to come here with
their incubators, where everybody eats
chicken at least once day and eggs as
often, they might be doing something
worth while.
FANNIE B. WARD.