126 



PROVINCE OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL. 



portion of the cattle are breeding cows. In a plain or field of three leagues 

 are usually bred four or five thousand head, and proportionably more or less, 

 according to the quality of the land, or attention of the breeder. The pasturage 

 is not, however, generally good, the soil being, as before mentioned, of a sandy 

 nature. 



For the management of a fazenda of five thousand head of cattle, it is said 

 six men are sufficient, with one hundred horses at least ; the whole of which 

 pasture together in troops of twenty, with a tamed mare, from which they do 

 not usually stray. From the sandy nature of the soil, as in many other parts of 

 Brazil, particularly at Pernambuco, no expense is incurred by the owners for 

 shoeing them. In each establishment, or tract of land, there is commonly a small 

 hill, or the most elevated land is selected, as plain and even at the summit as 

 possible, which is known by the name of rodeio, (a certain compass of land,) 

 and is capable of receiving the whole flock, when brought together. For this 

 purpose, the shepherds on horseback distribute themselves round about the cattle, 

 and cry out loudly " Rodeio, rodeio, rodeio at whose voices the cattle march 

 at full trot towards the rodeio, in files, divided into droves or bands of 

 fifty to one hundred, according to the numbers that pasture together. This 

 mode of forming them early into troops is indispensable, in order to put on the 

 mark of the dono or proprietor upon such as have it not, and with more facility 

 to select those that are upwards of four years old for the market, or for carne- 

 secco, or j irked beef. 



If the stock of cattle exceed the number of heads which the fazenda is 

 capable of sustaining, they of course run short of pasturage, and many spread 

 out into more distant plains, and after a time will no longer obey the rodeio, but 

 fly and disorder the rest of the flock. 



In a fazenda of three leagues it is computed that one thousand young cattle, 

 male and female, are branded or marked, annually ; consequently the number 

 thej'^ send off" or kill may be estimated in the same ratio. 



The farmers also breed a certain number of domestic cattle. He who pos- 

 sesses four thousand cattle, which are denominated bravo, or wild, keeps com- 

 monly one hundred milch cows, which, however, pasture in the same fields 

 or plains with the others. When a cow calves, she always selects a situation 

 adapted to the concealment of her young, where it continues in secrecy 

 for the space of eight days. She visits it at different times in the course of 

 the day, in order to give it suck, lying by it at night. It is difficult to find 



