1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
4T3 
A Colorado Immigrant. 
Many persons are looking -wistfully to the far 
West, and debating the question whether they 
can better their condition by removal. They 
have a great longing for exact information in 
regard to the state ^ 
of things in these 
new regions. We 
can not better meet 
this want than by 
giving a bit of per¬ 
sonal history which 
we learned from 
George Ratcliff, of 
Bear Canyon, Dou¬ 
glass Co., Colorado 
Territory. Mr. Rat¬ 
cliff’s farm is situ¬ 
ated upon both 
sides of West Plum 
Creek, about twelve 
miles from its 
mouth, where it 
fall# into the South 
Platte. It is just 
at the foot of the 
mountains, and tim¬ 
ber, mostly the hard 
pine, is easily pro¬ 
cured. He came 
out here eleven 
years ago, in the 
time of the mining excitement, with little more 
than his hands. He and his wife are English. 
They have enjoyed uninterrupted health, and 
have had four children born to them in the last 
five jears, good specimens of the Anglo-Saxon 
race. They have prospered in this new country, 
and have laid the foundation of a handsome 
fortune. We drove up to the house about noon, 
for the purpose of watering the horses, but 
found so hospitable a reception that we stayed 
several hours to look at the crops and stock. 
Mr. Ratcliff owns two hundred acres of land, 
for which he has been offered $2,000, but thinks 
it worth $3,000 now 
that the narrow- 
gauge railroad runs 
so near it. He has 
200 head of cattle, 
which are increas¬ 
ing rapidly in num¬ 
bers and value. A 
good cow in milk 
is worth about $65, 
yearlings $25, and 
calves $15. Butter, 
marketed at Den¬ 
ver, is worth forty 
cents a pound. The 
winters are mild 
and pleasant, and 
cattle graze the year 
round. There is a 
large range for stock 
unoccupied, and he 
can raise as many 
cattle as he likes. 
He has opened a 
ditch on the west 
side of the creek, 
which brings the 
water from above in sufficient quantity to irrigate 
50 acres. This only cost him twelve days’ labor. 
He has this year about 16 acres in crops, of which 
13 acres of oats and wheat have been irrigated 
twice. Generally it requires but one irrigation, 
but this season has been much drier than usual. 
He takes three, and sometimes five, wheat crops 
in succession from the same land. Both wheat 
and oats were very heavy in grain, though the 
straw was not of large growth. He estimated 
the wheat at 85 bushels the acre, and the oats 
at 80 bushels. The land is laid off into plats 
HEREFORD COW VERBENA. 
ten or twelve paces wide, bordered by shallow 
watercourses. The water is turned into these 
courses and diverted by the use of a shovel to 
either side, until the whole land is completely 
saturated. It took eight days only to irrigate 
thirteen acres twice, and secure these heavy 
crops. Mr. Ratcliff is cultivating other crops, 
which look as well as anything we ever saw in 
a rainy climate. He has the Early Rose potato, 
which yields 300 bushels to the acre, and brings 
from eight to four cents a pound, according to 
the time they are marketed. Onions are worth 
five cents a pound, and the yield is marvelous. 
HEREFORD BULL “ COMPTON LAD.” 
Cabbages, tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons do 
well. Mr. Ratcliff has been back to England 
on a visit, but returned to Colorado perfectly 
satisfied. He has a house, a large log-barn, 
and other out-buildings. There is still plenty 
of land, at Government prices, in Colorado. 
A Pair of Herefords. 
It is somewhat remarkable that a breed of 
cattle so popular in England as are the Here¬ 
fords should have obtained so slight a foothold 
in this country. Among the earliest importa¬ 
tions of this breed, 
if not the earliest 
one, was that made 
by Henry Clay, 
about the year 1816. 
They were bred for 
a while at Ashland, 
Ky., but soon disap¬ 
peared in favor of 
the Shorthorns. A 
large importation 
was made in 1840, 
and a portion of this 
herd, then on the 
farm of Erastus 
Corning, near Al¬ 
bany, N. Y., was 
described in this 
journal in 1843. 
This fine herd, 
which was after¬ 
wards removed 
from one point to 
another, is said by 
Mr. L. F. Allen, in 
his recent work on 
American Cattle, to 
have “ run out.” The same may be said of 
some other importations. Mr. F. W. Stone, of 
Guelph, Canada, has one of the largest herds of 
Herefords on this continent, and is still, we be¬ 
lieve, a successful breeder. It is probable that 
the great popularity of the Shorthorns has di¬ 
verted the attention of breeders from the Here¬ 
fords, and this, combined with the generally in¬ 
ferior dairy qualities of the breed, has made 
their career in this country so uncertain and 
unsuccessful. It is as working oxen and beef 
cattle that the Herefords are most prized. The 
oxen are large, powerful, intelligent, and quick 
under the yoke, and 
it is claimed by 
those who have 
used them that 
Hereford grade ox¬ 
en approach perfec¬ 
tion as working ani¬ 
mals. As beef cat¬ 
tle, the Herefords 
maintain a high 
rank in England, on 
account of their 
early maturity and 
the excellence of 
their flesh. Writers 
upon breeds differ 
as to the original 
color of the Here¬ 
fords. How the 
color is usually 
some shade of red, 
“with white faces, 
throats, bellies, and 
sometimes backs, 
_ and occasionally a 
roan of red and 
white mixed, and, 
more rarely, an almost clear white, with red 
ears, is found among them.” We give portraits 
of a cow, “Verbena,” and bull, “Compton 
Lad,” exhibited by H. C. Burleigh, Esq., of Fair- 
field, Me., at the last New England Fair, and 
which took the first premiums in their class. 
