The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-08-17
AT TOBIADO
Where Seven Thousand Wild Cattle Are. Sold
Herded By Gauchos

IhS, the cattle are running this way
and that with the men dashing among
them and cutting the strangers out of
the herds. They ride like centaurs.
waving their whips to brighten the
cattle rather than to increase the
speed of their horses. have seen
many polo patches. but in none such
riding as this. A steer may get out
of a herd and go flying about through
the hundred other herds on this two
acres of hills. Two gauChoS will fol
lew him. They will ride on each side
and drive him through drove after
drove until he comes back to his
place.
I stopped to take photographs OF
the gauchOs. They do not know the
camera and they asked to see the pic
lures at once. They are picturesque
Some of them have on long white
ponchos that float in the breeze as
they gallop this wa and that through
the stock. The ponchOS are Of fine
wool. The saddles are without horns
with sheepskin blankets on top. The
sheepskins lave the WOO on them and
the man sits on the wool as a protec-
ton against slipping. The ordinary
gait is a canter and the only gaits are
the walk. the canter and gallop. The
horses look like our western bronchOS.
The SauchoS have no mercy upOn
them. They drive the sharp spurs
into their sides and use their quirts
without mercy.
Now look at the cattle. There are
1000 or more being sold on the hills
this morning. They are Of all colors.
red, black. white and spotted. h
most of them are long horned and
rangey. much like those of Texas "a
generation or 50 ago. They will weigh
from 1000 to 800 pounds and their
W.
are in drOVeS of fifty to 500. each
drove coming from some big estate or
eStancia.
stopped now and then to watch the
selling. The price this morning is 10
cents a kilO of two and one-fifth
pounds. This is about $3.50 q hun
dred. live weight. After buying, the
weighed. 1t is interesting to watch
the weighing. The cattle go into cor
rails in one part of the field and as
they do SO they pass over great scales
thirty feet long by fifty feet wide
From fifty to 100 cattle are weighed al
a time and the scales are balanced
to the weight Of an ounce. The ca
pacity of the scale is 10000 pounds
and 100 cattle may be weighed a
once. There are four of these scales
SO that the weighing is rapidly done
Often 7,0O0, 600 pounds Of beeves arr
weighed here in a day. Turn tina
into steaks and you would have
enough to give a meal to every man
woman and child in New York ano
/ Boston. The registers Of the scale:
!, are inside galvanized iron sheds ant
officials appointed by the city do tn
weighing.
The sales here amour to something
, Take that herd of 500 cattle which Mr.
no Ivy &c hrryin Thou mill coll for SKI
a head and hat single purchase will
cost him $25, 900. Many other herd
e will bring $4,000 and upward and W
t have here on the hoOf this mOrnin;
. from a quarter to a half million dol
lars worth of live beef. The best 0
the cattle will go to the frigerifico
to be prepared for the markets Of Flu
] rope. The poorest will so to tn
sOiaderOS to be made into jerEed o
dried beef that will be shipped t
o Brazil and the West Indies. Fac
. herd is driven by it's own men VIII
Z receive 50 per hundred for drivin
them six miles and delivering ther
e to the buyers. This money is paid b
e the owners Of the cattle, who Sc
t them subject to delivery.
0 Leaving Toblado we rode in GU
e machines over the Cerro to the F'rige
rificO Montevideo, which belongs t
g Swift & Co. 1t is ituated on a littl
g peninsula running out into the wild
d and muddy Rio de la Plata. The build
! ing covers some acres. 1t is a struC
: ture Of concrete and galvanized iro
4 and it has all the equipment in tn
way of modern machinery of our be:
,r American plants. 1t was begun bot
a four years and a year and a ha
4 thereafter it was turning out a bee
n and a half a minute for eight hours
J. the day. Its present output is abOt
500 cattle and 1,O00 sheep daily. TT
q works employ about 1900 hands {
% whom 200 are The wome
come from the villages nearby. The
are paid from sixty cents to a dolla
a day. There are about forty Amer
a cans among the employees and thel
Ia are also Germans and Scandina Wan
i The average American hand does n
y stay long. In many cases he has con
le to South America to see the countl
.-I No v-rvl Ap1X- until ha oar "