Ripley County democrat., 1915-07-02
In OveraIIs Mrs. Crooks Attends
to Crops and Milk and
Butter.
RIDES LIKE A wEsrERNER
Whom tho Hired Men Get Slack or
Lazy She eoes Out Into the Field
and Shanes Them - Her
Cows Almost Human.

ing proofs, clerking. bookkeeping and
running a photograph gallery up to
and including matrimony and still
found happiness elusive.
Then she went to ranching From
handling the milk and butter OF 0
few grade cows she has gone into the
business of breeding fine stock She
owns 40 head of fine Holstefns from
the leading families of the Holstein
world She lives all year round In
the open and, arrayed in overalls.
she superintends the planting and
harvesting Of crops and the irrigating
Of 4s0 acres of fine grain land in ad-
dition to looking after her pets" And
she's happy.
Mrs. Crooks and her husband have
q fine ranch of 480 acres near Cum
nison, Colo. The man devotes himself
to q general cattle business. but to
his wife has fallen the work Of run
ming the ranch and thriving dairy
business. She does 1t with o vigor
that keeps roses In hor cheeks.
though her hair is grazing, and
makes her eyes sparkle with the zest
OF life. She rides like the out-and-out
westerner that she is She can run
any piece of machinery on the farm,
and when she thinks that the hired
hands" are getting q little slack or
lazy, she goes out into the fields and
works with them until. for very
shame, they must fall into the pace
she has set. Yet she measures only
FIVE feet four. she loves pretty clothes
and with the business Of buying bulls
that brought her to Denver recently
she combined shopping tour and
reveled in the new styles.
Homesick for the Ranch.
"f've never been homesick for the
place where was reared. I've never
been homesick for any human being
my mother or father or my husband
But I'm homesick for the ranch" she
said here to questioner.
Mrs. Crooks was city born and
bred. 1t was IL years ago that sht
went to ranching. She says quite
frankly that she married her husband
because he was q cowman and there
fore promised to fulfil the desire Of
her life for ranch home. They
hadn't anything but prospects to gel
married on. and after they were mar
ried she ran a photograph gallery ant
her husband worked as manager o
the state fish hatcheries until the,
had capital enough to purchase few
acres near Gunnison, Colo, and COW
The COW Mrs. Crooks insisted upoi
having even though there wer
numerous other things that they hal
to do without to have her. That GOV
was the foundation Of a thrivin
dairy business and q venture q
breeding stock which has proved bot
profitable and agreeable.
The cattlemen Of the state hav
made her president Of the 'Colorad
Holstein club.
Il don't see why more women don
go into the business" she says. WON
en- have plenty Of business ability an
they pay much more attention to d.
tail. On q ranch they save money
little ways that q man won't bottle
about. And that is what makes fC
success"
Beginning Of Dairy Business.
II was because she couldn't bea
TO waste anything that Mrs. Crook
began selling the surplus milk give
by their one COW. Soon she had q
many customers as she could suppl
and was making good profit. The
one day her only competitor ii
nounced that he was going out Of tn
dairy business. All OF his patron
Immediately fiocked to Mrs. Crook
and she agreed to take care Of then
though God only knew where ! wa
to get the milk" she says.
She bought up all the milch COW
that Rhe could and acquired with II
rest OF the bunch q relic Of good ol
| days, q Holstein that later was foun
to be twenty years old. She CAV
more milk than any OF the grade ca
tie. despite her advanced years, On
that was the way Mrs. Crooks got 4
terested in the breed. After she hs
| paid on the debt on her herd and be
begun to make guod-sized profit q
the business she made a trip TO De
yer and picked up q bunch OF He
stems for $500. About three yea
later she sold that same bunch /
Holsteins for three times that amour
and from her books she saw that 81
had realized $1,000 on stock 20
from them and about $1,000 on crea
and milk. despite the fact that 81
was such distance from good ma
ket. And that profit was In additis
to all the skim milk that had been II
, to the calves and swine on the ranc
Her Cows aAimost Human"
II sold tkese cows because we We
90 far from . market" says Nj
Crooks. "But was 80 lonesome q
81 or they we're gone that ! made up u
mind then and there that I'd aiwal
have fes holsteins on the plR'
after that. They're almost human.
never 50 cut 70 the corral but VIII