The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-01-12
LARGEST PRIVATE ESTATE.


reputed to be the largest estate in the
world owned by private individual,
was increased to the immense pro-
portions of 1000 square miles, or
1880, 900 acres. This single ranch
is, therefore, almost twice as large
as the State of Rhode Island and con-
tains IS, 900 more acres of land than
does the State of Delaware.
All this immense area, says Har-
beys Weekly, is owned by one elderly
woman of simple tastes and retiring
habits, who takes no active part in
its management and does not even
live upon the land for the greater
part of the year. Her interest in the
ranch is strongest during Christmas
week, when, with traditional South
ern hospitality, she entertains half a
hundred guests in the great manor
house.
However impressive the statistics
of Santa Gertrudes may be on paper,
the visible reality is not at all impos-
ing. On slight swell of ground,
by no means high enough to be dig
ni6ed by the name of a hill, stands
the ranch house, neat white build
ing large enough to serve the pur-
pose of good-sized hotel, with de-
tached dining room and kitchen and
abundant verandas, after the South
ern style.
To the rear is a glass-bordered
reservoir fed by an artesian well, an
untidy barn and corral, and black
smith shop and some shady trees.
At the right is the ranch commits
sary, whence are drawn all the neces-
saries of life and as much of its luxu-
ries as the scanty Mexican popula-
ton of the ranch ever know. Be-
yond the commissary lies a hamlet Of
neat brick cottages, which house the
Mexicans who are employed at head
quarters.
From the upper windows of the
ranch house one may look out in any
direction over an expanse of level
prairie fringed with mesquite, until
the hazy rim of the horizon shuts out
the view and that is absolutely all.
However thoroughly convinced one
may be of the existence Of those
1000 square miles, or of the 80, 900
head of cattle and 2 1000 head of horses
and 1000 goats that Craze thereon,
as spectacle the largest private es-
tate in the world is distinct failure.
1t does not take many men to run
a big ranch. The total population
of Santa Gertrudes, white and Mexi-
can, men, women and children, is
three hundred. If the ranch were as
densely populated as Rhode Island it
would have 8I4,o 900 inhabitants.
Even the three hundred are scattered
so that very few of them are ever
seen together.
The ranch is divided into seventy
pastures. On each of the largest
and on groups of two or three of the
smaller pastures a family lives. A
small pasture, in this instance, is un-
derstood to mean 5000 acres or so.
In the horse department foreman
and forty men have charge of herd
of six hundred Percheron and thor
oughbred brood mares, but as the
breeding farm occupies six hundred
acres, there is no crowding.
There are never any murders or
sluggings,. nor even q strike to add
to the zest of excitement to the life
of the ranch. All the employees
here, as elsewhere in southwest Tex
as, are Mexicans, who are actually
content to be faithful, Industrious,
honest, trustworthy servants as long
as they are decently treated.
At salary of ten dollars a month
and rent and provisions they render
faithful and cheerfully willing ser
vice under all circumstances, and
train their children to take up their
tasks where they lay them down.
The old cook at 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
activity around the ranch is during
the great spring roundup, when the
calves are branded. There were a.
600 calves to brand last spring.
It took the corporal and his thirty
vauueros a solid month of severe toll
to do the trick. Cowboys, by the
way, never see anything but hard
work. Their hours are from 4 A. M.
to 8 P. NJ, or as much longer as cir
cumstances may require, every day
in the year.
Santa Gertrudes ranch was found
ed in 1883 by Captain Richard King,
former Mississippi river pilot, who,
with his friend Captain Mif1in Ken
nedy, had charge of the transport
service on the Rio Grande which
supplied General Taylor's army dur
ing the Mexican war, Captain King s
ambition was to possess the largest
and best conducted ranch in Texas,
but he died twenty years ago, AFTER
accumulating 800, 900 acres.
The property was left to his wild
ow, Mrs. H. M. King, who turned
the entire management over to her
son-in-law, r. J. Kleberg, lawyer,
who was born and brought mp with
| in one hundred and fifty miles of the
the ranch. Under Mr.. Kleberg's s
management the acreage has if1creas-
ed more than so per cent.
When Mr.. Kleberg took charge OF
the ranch it was stocked with the
usual inferior Iong horned native
cattle. He attempted to improve
the breed, but the costly blooded
bulls he brought to the ranch invari-
able died few days after their arri-
val.
Investigation led to the conviction
that the fatal malady was caused by
the bite of tick, with which all cat.
tie were infested, but to which the
native cattle were immune. He in.
vited the cooperation of the Agricul-
4