1883 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
527 
loose to shift for themselves. From time to time 
they may be “ rounded up,” or in plainer English, 
driven into the limits of a certain distance from 
the ranche. But this is only performed when the 
grass is well devoured, and hunger likely to drive 
them to more distant and strange pasturages. 
It is singular to observe how the cattle cling to¬ 
gether, in spite of the freedom which is thus al¬ 
lowed them. Cases are rare in which they go 
astray. Cows with calves may hide them for a 
time, but otherwise the ranchero can reckon on find¬ 
ing them whenever he may wish. Of course this 
method of life renders them shy, but they are by 
no means dangerous. We have often ridden 
through great herds of them without a menace, 
and only on a couple of occasions have been 
forced to use the spur to escape some particularly 
cranky and belligerent brute. Among themselves 
they frequently fight savagely. The Indians say 
the cows quarrel because they are jealous of each 
other’s calves ; however this may be, they certain¬ 
ly do some savage work which would be no dis¬ 
credit to bulls in the ring. 
The native rancheros of South America are, as a 
rule, an amiable and quiet race, whether creole or 
half-breed ; their wants are few, their tastes simple, 
and their vices insignificant. They breed vast fami¬ 
lies of children and are indulgent, though some¬ 
what whimsical parents and masters. However 
rich they may be in their flocks, they are generally 
poorin purse, for they kill or sell their stock only 
to meet their needs. A man on the South Ameri¬ 
can plains is said to be worth not so much money 
but so many head of cattle, and it is his pride to 
add to the count. 
He keeps a regular census of his herds by per¬ 
forated boards iuto which pegs are stuck. Some 
ranches have their walls almost covered with these 
boards, and the master will keep pegging them up as 
if he was engaged in a game of cribbage with nature, 
and constantly winning. As a rule each peg repre¬ 
sents a single animal. We only found one ranche 
where the count was kept with pegs for the thou¬ 
sands, the hundreds, and the single heads. This 
ranchero had spent some years in Trinidad in his 
youth, and was regarded by all who knew him 
as an exceptionally advanced and brilliant man ; 
yet he could only write his name in printed letters, 
and could not read written letters at all. 
There are, of course, upon the plains men who 
breed cattle with some intelligence and energy. 
These are educated natives or foreigners. W T ith 
owners live on the best they can raise and buy, 
and keep their motley armies of followers as 
profitably busy as they can be kept. In short, 
intelligence and the energy born of intelligence, 
raise the standard of this class of cattle ranch- 
A RANCHERO. 
ing to the best leyel of which it is capable. 
But men who form this class are exceptions to 
the great rule. For one man who keeps books 
there are hundreds who use the numbering 
boards; for one man who tries to breed his cat¬ 
tle at their best, to utilize their products in every 
form and to enjoy their uses after the fashion of 
civilization, there are thousands who have no as- 
lor their meat, and what of it he does not use 
himself he trades with the Indians and the small 
farmers for game and vegetables. The hides he 
makes into furniture or trades in the same way. 
Thus, his bovine army goes on increasing year bi- 
year, and if it were not kept down in numbers by 
the forage of wild beasts, the accidents of the ele¬ 
ments, or the regular annual prairie fire, it would 
soon overrun the country with its horned legions. 
This variety of cattle ranchero leads an absolutely 
patriarchal existence. He gives his children dow¬ 
ries of cattle when they marry. He pays his debts 
in cattle. He gambles for cattle on the rare oc¬ 
casions when he visits his nearest neighbor, or liis 
neighbor visits him. His sway over his people is 
autocratic. He dispenses justice to them as it 
seems best to him, and he makes laws to rule 
them to suit himself. He is a little king, lording 
it in his solitude with as little appeal from his de¬ 
crees as there is from those of the Czar. 
But he is a good fellow and a hospitable one, and 
we who have enjoyed his generous entertainment 
during many a lonely journey on which a kindly 
human face came like a benediction, are happy to 
acknowledge the debt of gratitude. 
White Polled Cattle. 
White polled cattle were bred in ancient times 
on the monastic estates, in several different coun¬ 
ties of England. A few descendants of these still 
exist, and although of large size, they are not 
thought equal in form and style to those of a cen¬ 
tury ago. At that time and previously, as is sup¬ 
posed, they resembled Shorthorns, and were fa¬ 
mous for milk and beef. It is a great misfortune 
that this highly useful breed has been neglected 
and suffered to almost run out, for had it been 
carefully cultivated like the Black Polled Cattle of 
Scotland, and the Red Polled of England, it would 
have been counted in the foremost rank of the 
improved stock of Great Britain. These animals 
are what the present time so earnestly demands —■ 
namely, polled cows of large size, great and rich 
milkers, and when dried off, capable of being fat¬ 
tened economically and quickly, turning out a 
superior quality of beef. The White Polled would 
become a generally useful animal, with the further 
advantage of being destitute of horns, the main 
use of which is to hook and gore each other, 
and stab their keepers. White Polled cattle are 
common in the north of Scotland, and were pro- 
the RANCHE AT NIGHT .—Drawn and Engraved for the Amirican Agriculturist. 
them the business is scientifically pursued; they 
have their regular slaughtering seasons and make 
all they cau by the trade. Their houses, though 
constructed on the general plan of all tropical 
or sub-tropical dwellings, are paved and floored, 
kept cleanly and filled with comforts. Their 
pirations above that of living with as little work as 
possible, and using their wealth only to satisfy the 
rudest demands which nature makes on them. 
In many of the interior sections, where access 
to a market is impossible, the ranchero simply 
uses his herds to live upon, He kills his cattle 
duced, it is thought, by a cross of Shorthorn bulls 
on the native Black Polled Cows, as they are 
known to have been brought into this country for 
one hundred years or more past ; but at first under 
the names of Teeswater and Holderness. The same 
crossing has been done in Orkney and otlierislands. 
