128 THE BEEF BONANZA. 



sheep-raiser in New Mexico, notwithstanding the coarse 

 quality of wool of the present flock, can herd his sheep 

 and make a profit from the product of his wool, and 

 have all the increase of his stock in addition thereto. I 

 have no hesitation in saying that New Mexico can fairly 

 compete with Australia, South Africa, and South 

 America in the production of cheap wool. These 

 statements may appear to you somewhat exaggerated, 

 but I assure you, on the contrary, that it is within the 

 limits of reasonable bounds. I was born and raised in 

 New Mexico, my friends and relations have always 

 owned sheep, and I myself have to a large extent been 

 an owner of that kind of property, and, therefore, to a 

 great extent speak from personal experience." 



Senator Chaffee, of Colorado, says : " In one county 

 (Conejoes) out of the twenty-one counties of Colorado 

 over 300,000 sheep were grazing at one time last sum- 

 mer, and I do not think 1,500,000 would be an over- 

 estimate for the whole Territory. The character of the 

 climate and soil being dry (the latter being also gravelly 

 and porous) the grasses are very nutritious, with a great 

 variety of food in the great variety of aromatic plants 

 of that country, renders them scarcely liable to disease. 

 It is undoubtedly the most natural and finely-adapted 

 sheep-growing country in the world, and I think this 

 is the universal testimony of those best acquainted with 

 stock-raising who have visited Colorado in the last few 

 years. In the southern portion of Colorado the only 

 cost is herding, and, subsisting upon the natural grasses 

 of the country in winter as well as summer, no prepara- 

 tions of hay or other food are necessary. The net profit 



