The following tables, furnished by one of the large wool-scouring plants situated at Las Vegas, indicate the diversity in the wool clips grown in the Territory: A clip of 40,000 pounds of grease wool yielded: Scoured fine wool Scoured fine medium A clip of 90,000 grease pounds yielded: Blanket A clip of 77,000 grease pounds yielded: Blanket A clip of 31,000 grease pounds yielded: Scoured fine medium.. Three-eighths.. Quarter-blood. Blanket Carpet.. A clip of 20,000 grease pounds yielded: Scoured three-eighths.. Quarter-blood. Blanket Carpet... Per cent. There are many clips that will show a much greater percentage of the low sorts (blanket and carpet) than is indicated in the tables quoted above. The production of such a vast quantity of wool has brought within our borders another important industry-the business of scouring wool as well as of sorting it and otherwise preparing it for the manufaeturers' use. Three large plants have been erected at Las Vegas. There is also one located at Albuquerque. There is in addition to these a scouring plant at Trinidad, Colo., across the New Mexican line, which handles large quantities of wool grown in northern and northeastern New Mexico. The town of Eddy has also a large plant recently put into operation. These scouring mills have been the prominent factor in securing for the growers full prices for their clips. The benefits they confer upon the sheep men are numerous. Their presence and anxiety to secure wool has developed a competition among buyers that has reacted to the growers' benefit. The scouring of wool at home results in a big saving in freight charges, as all the grease and sand carried by the wool is eliminated, and transportation charges are only paid on clean wool. They are a school for the growers, as they teach them the shrinkage of the wool and the percentage of the various sorts taken from it; and, as all wool is bought and sold on a scoured basis, it is very necessary that they should possess this information, as it enables them to dispose of their products intelligently and to good advantage. If wool is consigned to an Eastern commission house to be sold, the charges are less for handling scoured wool than for grease wool, the growers have more money to spend at home, and their support of the scouring mills keeps employed in New Mexico much capital and many hands. The benefits of scouring mills to a community are fully illustrated in the case of Las Vegas, which is to-day the best wool market in the Southwest, and wool is shipped to that point from the most distant parts of the Territory, the growers being attracted there by its excellent outlet for wool. If the grower sells his wool to an Eastern buyer in the grease, he has to pay the freight as well as the charge for scouring the wool, as he well knows, and if he can save the money paid for hauling the grease and dirt in his wool, it is certainly to his interest to do so. It is also better for the Territory to have this work done here, as it encourages an important industry here and adds to the wealth of New Mexico. That the conversion of the wool just as it comes from the sheep's back into the condition required by the manufacturers has been remunerative to the growers is demonstrated by the following letters which were received, with numerous others of similar import, by one of the leading scouring mills at Las Vegas, N. Mex.: : In reply to your letter of the 10th instant, I have to say that I want you to scour my wool, as you have done for many years. I have learned by experience that the reputation of your company in the wool market of the East is such that wool sorted and scoured by it sells for the highest market price; and in regard to my wool, when you scour it, and I see the market quotations for scoured wools, I know exactly what it is worth, and I believe the owners of fine wool can realize more by scouring than selling in the grease. For instance, two years ago, when you scoured it, I realized, after all expenses had been paid, $1,668.48 over the highest price I was offered for it in the grease. I often hear it asserted that in New Mexico and Arizona we can not raise such wool as is produced in Montana and Northern States, and it may be true; but, nevertheless, I have received for every clip you have scoured the past six years the same price, and I think I owe something to your company for the thorough manner it was sorted, scoured, and put up, and I am going to stay with you. Yours, truly, P. S.-I hope to have over 100,000 pounds this coming clip. : J. G. CLANCEY. We are very well satisfied with the manner in which you handled our clip last year and the price you got for us. It is our intention to place this spring's clip, which will be in the neighborhood of 200,000 pounds, in your hands again, as we believe all fine wools should be handled through a scouring-mill, as there is a big saving in freight and in the commission charged for selling the wool. We are convinced that we can get more money from our clip in this manner than if it is handled or disposed of in any other way. Yours, truly, MCINTOSH & MCGILLIVRAY. The sheep business of New Mexico has also resulted in the establishment of another enterprise at home, viz, that of wool pulling and tanning. There are located at Las Vegas two wool-pulling plants, one of which is also engaged in the tanning of leather. The processes through which a sheep pelt goes from the time it is taken off the carcass until it is converted into leather are many and interesting. When the pelts are received by the puller they are soaked in tanks filled with clear, soft water. When the skin is thoroughly softened, the water is drained off, usually in hydro-extractors. If what is known as the sweating process is used, the pelts are then suspended from the tenterhooks in closed rooms called the sweat houses. Steam is introduced, and the chemical action produced by the heat upon the skin causes the wool to be easily removed from the skin after having been sweated for about forty-eight hours. The use of depilatories is largely supplanting the sweating method. In this case the flesh side of the pelt is painted with a solution of the depilatory. The pelt is folded and laid away for from five to twelve hours, according to the season of the year and the strength of solution, after which the wool can be pulled from the skin with great ease, the depilatory having destroyed or eaten the roots of the wool fibers. As the pullers remove the wool they sort it into different classes belonging to pulled wool, which are technically known as extras, fine super, A super, B super, and C super. The pelt from which the wool has been taken is now termed the "slat," and it is then put through the process of liming, beaming, bating, or drenching. At this stage, if the puller is also a tanner, the slat goes to the tanning department, whence it finally emerges as leather. There are about twenty different processes for tanning slats, the four principal ones being the chrome, the oil, the bark, and the alum. If the puller does not desire to tan the slats, he proceeds to pickle them, in which state they can be kept for a long period, or they may be sold to those who tan the slats only and do not engage in the preliminary work of pulling. The work of pickling is performed in order to preserve the slats in good condition for tanning when they are not tanned immediately after the bating process. The location of these plants within the Territory supplies the growers with a splendid home market, just as the wool-scouring mills furnish him with an unsurpassed outlet for his wool clip. New Mexico pelts have an enviable reputation for their leather-making qualities. Eastern tanners prefer them to all others on account of their fineness of grain and toughness, and they are largely used in the production of imitation morocco and other leathers, as well as for glove stock, for which they are eminently suited. If the butchers and herders will exercise proper care in removing the pelt from the carcass and curing it afterwards, they can obtain fancy prices for them. Pullers and tanners have complained at times that excellent skins have been ruined for leather purposes by reason of careless skinning and handling in the primal stages, an objection that should and can be easily remedied by the exercise of intelligence and care on the part of those who skin the animals and prepare the pelts for shipment to the pullers. GREAT MONEY EASILY MADE IN CATTLE AND SHEEP BUSINESS. A number of lines of business in which large gains are now realized have been mentioned in different parts of this report. And what many are now doing many more could do, for one beauty about New Mexico is that an investment here is not simply one nail driving out another. Every department of industry and enterprise has abundant room for many additions, the newcomers doing as well as the old, and the old suffering no competition from the new. Were the stock investments of New Mexico doubled in value by the addition of new ranges and new animals, the old interests would not be damaged a particle, since the return on investment in this industry is determined by the condition throughout the nation. So with the production of wool and hides and pelts. For those having the means and somewhat of experience, the cattle or sheep business offers a field of almost limitless opportunity and vast profit, either in the purchase of present ranges or the development of others, should breeding be proposed; or in the purchase of lands and development of new ranches, should feeding and fattening be contemplated. These enterprises require, of course, a considerable outlay of money in the purchases of stock and ranches, though the ranges are practi 6487-22 cally free, the location or development of water placing the surrounding unwatered lands at the use of the locator. But similar stock industries can not be entered upon elsewhere and to the same extent with less money, nor will the returns elsewhere be so satisfactory. Because of winter mildness, maintenance is less costly, and because of climatic excellence losses are fewer and increase is at a much larger ratio. The stockbreeders' Elysian fields lie in New Mexico. Hon. MIGUEL A. OTERO, Governor, Santa Fe, N. M. DEAR SIR: I have the honor to report that the material results accruing to the cattle interests of New Mexico for the year ending June 30, 1900, have been the best experienced for at least a decade. The losses in range stock consequent to the extraordinarily severe winter of 1898 and 1899 were confined entirely to the poor and weak old cows that were unable to go far away from the watering places in search of pasture, and were always the first to be seen when stock was shown to intending purchasers, and invariably made a bad impression as to the quality of the bulk of the herd, so that their removal by the elements has proved to be very much in the nature of a blessing in disguise, so much more satisfactory do the herds appear without them. And further, if there were any germs of infectious disease lurking on the range, they were likewise destroyed. Not a single case of anything of the sort has been reported to this office since my last report, and the health of the cattle was never better. From July 1 the season of 1899 was favorable to the stock interests, water everywhere, and grass well cured before frost; stock of all kinds were well prepared to go through the balance of the year without suffering. This followed by an unusually mild winter no appreciable loss was experienced. Throughout the greater part of the Territory the summer rains set in a month earlier than usual and have kept up until now, making the present one of the most favorable seasons for the stock interests ever known. Inspectors report that the increase in the various sections of the Territory will run from 60 to 90 per cent of the breeding cattle, and that owing to the abundance and freshness of the pasture all will be saved and well grown, and that the improvement of grade over that of all previous years is especially noticeable. That the active demand for a well-bred yearling at $20 and the slow sale of a scrub at any price has been an object lesson to the nonprogressive cattleman that can not be disregarded if he continues in the business, and the production of a class of cattle of as high a grade as the vicissitudes of the range will with safety permit is now fully under way. That, in introducing new blood for the improvment in grade, the tendency is strongly to the Herefords, though many of our foremost cattlemen well qualified to judge, claim the first cross on our native stock should be on the Durham, to give shape, size, and bone, and the Herefords put in later to impress their well-known rustling qualities. The demand for all classes of cattle has been strong. There have been sold and delivered since January 1, 1900, 86,470 head of cattle mostly one and two year old steers at from $15 to $20 per head for ones and $18 to $27 for twos, according to quality and accessibility. Threes and up are very scarce and can not be found in any great number in single hands. There has also been a good demand for heifers and stock cattle, but in these classes not much trading has been done, their owners no longer being in financial straits in view of the outlook, preferring to hold them for their increase and the growth they will surely take on owing to the abundance and quality of the pasture at hand. At this time of the year the question of the Kansas corn crop is a problem of great interest to the New Mexico stockman, for on it depends to a great extent the demand for the products of the range for the balance of the calendar year, and until that crop is assured, no reliable estimate can be made of the numbers that may be required for feeding to a finish. There are plenty of steers yet in the Territory that will be avail'able for this purpose if the present indications for an immense corn crop in that State are realized. Outside of the land grants the greater portion of the range in this Territory is on the public domain. The question of leasing these lands in large bodies is now being agitated mostly by the people living in States that have none within their borders. There is a great deal to be said on both sides of the question, but the sentiment that men are better entitled to the privilege of making homes for themselves and families wherever the conditions will permit it than that these lands shall be monopolized for the exclusive breeding of stock seems to prevail in this Territory. |