The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1906-12-08

IN the horse dcparu, ,ent foreman
ard forty men have Chtrge of herd
Il iN hundred Perchcrot and thorough
bred brood mares, but ts the breeding
| farm occupies six bundled acres, there
is no crowding.
| There are ,.ever any murders or slug
| gings, nor tTen 4 strike TO add to the
zest of excitement to the life of the
ranch. Al the employees here, as else
| where in southwest Texas. are Mexi-
cans, who are actually content to be
faithful, industrious, honest, trustworthy
servants as long as they are decently
! treated
At a salary of ten dollars month
and rent and provisions they render
faithful and cheerfully willing service
under all circumstances, and train their
| children to take up their tasks where
they lay them down The old cook al
the ranch house has held his post for
| fifty years. There is no labor problem
in southwest Texas
| The only time when there is keen &C
tivjty around the ranch is during the
| great spring roundup. when the calves
are branded. There were $4,000 calves
to brand last spring
1t took the corporal and his thirty
| vaqueros a solid month of severe toll to
| do the trick. Cowboys, by the way,
| never see anything but hard work. Their
hours are from ! a. nj. to p. m, or as
| much longer as circumstances may re-
quire, every day in the year.
Santa Gertrudes ranch was founded in
1858 by Captain Richard King, former
Mississippi river pilot, who. with his
friend Captain Miflin Kennedy. had
charge OF the transport service on the
Rio Grande which supplied General Tay
lor's army during the Mexican war,
Captain Kings ambition was to possess
the largest and best conducted ranch i'll
Texas, but he died twenty years ago,
after accumulatiug Soo.ooo acres.
The property was lefG to his widow,
Mrs II. NJ. King, who turned the entire
| management over to her son-in-law,
]. kleberg, lawyer, 10 was born and
brought up within one hundred and fifty
| miles of the ranch, Under Mr.. kle-
berss management the acreage has been
increased more than so per cent.
When Mr.. Klcberg took charge of the
| ranch it was stocked with the usual in
ferior long horned native cattle. He at
| tempted to improve the breed, but the
| costly b4D0ucl DuilS lc DlouSiit " tiiS
ranch invariably died few days after
| their arrival.
Investigation led to the conviction that
| the fatal malady was caused by the bite
of tick, with which all cattle were in
tested, but to which the native cattle
were immune. He invited the co-opera-
ton OF the Agricultural Department in
seeking preventive. In due time a
process of incubation which was found
to be almost infallible was perfected at
Santa Gertrudes.
The discovery put an end to the loss
OF untold millions, for Texas cattle had
Heretofore left a trail of infection and
| death among their kind wherever they
| went in the North incidentally, Mr.
| kleberg was enabled TO breed up his
| cattle until all those on the ranch are
| row from one-half to fifteen-sixteenths
Hereford or Durham.
The practical value of the discovery
was illustrated last spring, when lot OF
10000 yearling steers was sold at SIS a
head, and another lot of seven hundred
| bull calves was sold at $40 head. Long
horn yearlings were worth So.