The Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Ark.) 190?-current, 1910-08-02

ard consequently there is less room for beef
cattle The country offers fine opportunities
for dairy stock and viii undoubtedly develop
along tais line In the uplands and on the
Atlantic slope there are large areas of fine
open country in Guatemala Honduras, Mica
ragaa and Costa Rica. where cattle can be
produced cheaply as anywhere in the
world 1t is a known fact that in Guatemala
and Honduras four-year-old stock can be pro
duced the ranges to cost less than 81 a
head. The native stock needs improving. 1t
is the same which wsS formerly known in the
United States as the Texas long horn. When
crossed by Shorthorn bulls the resulting prog
cry IS a firstclass beef animal Hereford
Galloway and Aberdeen-Angus crosses also
produce good results.
At present the industry IS almost entirely
local. Millions of acres of the finest pa,
turage In the world, where the native grasses
stand from knee to shoulder high, unuti
lied. 1.-THE Of the capital and enterprise
which have produced such large results In
Argentina and Uruguay would make Central
America, although limited in area impor
tant factor in the worlds meat market and
would pay to the investors a handsome return
on their investment.
In South America there are three great
natural cattle regions which In area and
adaptabiity for cattle production are une-
qualed In any other part o. the world. The
plains Of the Oronoco, of The Amazon and OF
the Plata rivers are wthcu: doubt the best
adapted for producing beef cattle cheaply and
on large scale of any other sections of either
the old or the new world
Behind the Venezuelan coast range of
mountains lies the basin of the Oronoco This
river has nearly 500 tributaries and at its
greatest length is 1900 miles long and Is navi-
gable from the ocean for about 1900 miles,
For about half its length 1t flows north and
then turns almost directly east and continues
Ia this line to the Atlantic. Near the bend
OF the Oronoco IT is Joined by the Apnre one
of It's chief tributaries, which has come down
from the eastern Cordilleras of Colombia
through the heart of the region OF the llanos
or prairie lands These lands continue on to
the east to the vertex Of the delta of the Orc
noca. They comprise about 10000 square
miles in Venezuela and about 1870 600 square
miles In Colombia. II is the largest single
compact area of hghclass natural pasture IN
the world. In the uxuriance of its grasses It
is as far ahead Of the pampas lands of Argen-
tina are these ahead of the short-grass
lands OF Kansas or Nebraska 1t is one Inn
mense level prairie. thickly carpeted with
para and guinea grass, growing twice as high
as broom sedge a neglected Virginia farm.
It is crossed and interlaced by hundreds OF
rivers flowing into the Oronoco or into It's
larger tributaries, the Apure. the Arauca, the
Meta, the Viehada and the Guaviare. From
these rivers spread out smaller rivers creeks
and CUTS joining river to another so that
the whole is one great water mesh. In some
places for hundred miles one must cross
water every half mile or less The creeks and
CUTS, when wide enough are navigable for
launches and fatboats and offer the best and
cheapest possible system of highways leading
directly down to the Oronoco and the sea.
From the earliest days of the Spanish con-
quest this country has been famed as a cattle
land At the time of the war of independence
In 1872. 1t was estimated that there were