Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1915-06-24
SHE RUNS RANCH
END OF BUSINESS
In overaIIs Mrs. Crooks Attends
to Crops and Milk and
Butter.
When the Hired Men Get Slack or
Lazy She ooes Out Into the Field
and shames Them = Her,
Cows Almost Human.


penver.-Mrs. Angle Crooks tried
everything from teaching school, readi
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 a
few grade COWS she has gone into the
business of breeding fine stock. She
owns 20 head of fine Holsteins from
the leading families Of the HolsteiH
world. She lives all year round In
the open and, arrayed in overalls.
she superintends the planting anE
harvesting of crops and the irrigatingI
of 480 acres of fine grain land in adj!
dition to looking after her ".pets." And
she's happy.
Mrs. Crooks and her husband have.
a fine ranch OF 4SO acres near Gun.
nison, Colo. The man devotes himself
to a general cattle business, but to,
his wife has fallen the work of run4
ming the ranch and a thriving dairy
business. She, does it with vfgor
that keeps roses in her, 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 little slack OF
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.
1--WE never been homesick for the
place where l 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. It was IL years ago that she
went to ranching. She says quite
frankly that she married her husband
because he was "a cowman and there
fore promised to fulfill the desire OF
her life for ranch home. They
| hadn't anything but prospects to get
married on, and after they were mar.
ried she ran photograph gallery and
her husband worked as manager OF
the state fish hatcheries until they
had capital enough to purchase few
acres near Gunnison, Colo, and a COW
The COW Mrs Crooks insisted upon
having even though there were
numerous other things that they had
| to do without to have her That COW
| was the foundation Of thriving
| dairy business and venture il
breeding stock which has proved botf
| profitable and agreeable.
| The cattlemen Of the state have
made her president of the Colorado
Holstein club.
/ II don't see why more women dom
go into the business" she says. WON
en- have plenty of business ability ant
they pay much more attention to de
tail. On ranch they save money IL
/ little ways that a man won't bothe
/ about. And that is what makes TO-
success"
Beginning Of Dairy Business.
1t was because she couldn't bea
to waste anything that Mrs. Crook
began selling the surplus milk givel
by their one COW. Soon she had a.
many customers as she could suppl.
and was making good profit. Thel
one day her only competitor an
nounced that he was going out of tn
dairy business. All of his patron
Immediately focked to Mrs. Crooks
and she agreed to take care of them
though God only knew where wa
to get the milk" she says.
She bought up all the milch COW
that she could and acquired with tn
rest Of the bunch relic of good oil
days, a Holstein that later was feun
to be twenty years old. She CAV
more milk than any of the grade cal
tie, despite her advanced years, an
t that was the way Mrs. Crooks got II
terested in the breed After she ha
paid off the debt on her herd and ha
begun to make good-sized profit O.
the business she made trip to Der
yer and picked up a bunch of Ho
stems for $500. About three year
later she sold that same bunch 6
Holsteins for three times that amour
and from her books she saw that sh
had realized $4,000 on stock sol
from them and about 1000 on crear
and milk, despite the fact that sh
was such distance from good MAJ
ket. And that profit was in additio
to all the skim milk that had been fe
to the calves and swine on the rancl
Her Cows "AImost Human"
IT sold those COWS because we wer
so far from market" says Mr.
Crooks. But was SO lonesome af
er they were gone that made up m
mind then and there that I'd Away
have a few Holsteins on the plac
after that They're almost human
never go out to the corral but whs
In the County Clerks office OF he