Arizona Sketches
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Joseph A. Munk >> Arizona Sketches
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The Indians were not seen again after entering the stronghold
until they crossed the line into Mexico, where they were pursued
by United States soldiers. After a long, stern chase Geronimo
surrendered himself and followers to General Miles, who brought
them back to Arizona. As prisoners they were all loaded into
cars at Bowie and taken to Florida. The general in command
thought it best to take them clear out of the country in order to
put an effectual stop to their marauding. Later they were
removed to the Indian Territory where they now live.
The rest of the Apaches remain in Arizona and live on the San
Carlos reservation on the Gila river where they are being
inducted into civilization. Since the disturbing element among
them has been removed there has been no more trouble. They seem
to have settled down with a sincere purpose to learn the white
man's way and are quiet and peaceable. They are laborers,
farmers and stockmen and are making rapid progress in their new
life.
CHAPTER VII
A MODEL RANCH
Any one who has been in Arizona and failed to visit the Sierra
Bonita ranch missed seeing a model ranch. Henry C. Hooker, the
owner of this splendid property, was born in New England and is a
typical Yankee, who early emigrated west and has spent most of
his life on the frontier.
He went to Arizona at the close of the Civil War and engaged in
contracting for the Government and furnishing supplies to the
army. It was before the days of railroads when all merchandise
was hauled overland in wagons and cattle were driven through on
foot. He outfitted at points in Texas and on the Rio Grande and
drove his cattle and wagons over hundreds of miles of desert
road through a country that was infested by hostile Indians.
Such a wild life was naturally full of adventures and involved
much hardship and danger. The venture, however, prospered and
proved a financial success, notwithstanding some losses in men
killed, wagons pillaged and cattle driven off and lost by bands
of marauding Apaches.
In his travels he saw the advantages that Arizona offered as a
grazing country, which decided him to locate a ranch and engage
in the range cattle business.
The ranch derives its name from the Graham or Pinaleno mountains
which the Indians called the Sierra Bonita because of the many
beautiful wild flowers that grow there. It is twenty miles north
of Willcox, a thriving village on the Southern Pacific Railroad,
and ten miles south of Ft. Grant, that nestles in a grove of
cotton trees at the foot of Mt. Graham, the noblest mountain in
southern Arizona.
The Sierra Bonita ranch is situated in the famous Sulphur Spring
valley in Cochise County, Arizona, which is, perhaps, the only
all grass valley in the Territory. The valley is about twenty
miles wide and more than one hundred miles long and extends into
Mexico. Its waters drain in opposite directions, part flowing
south into the Yaqui river, and part running north through the
Aravaipa Canon into the Gila and Colorado rivers, all to meet and
mingle again in the Gulf of California.
Fine gramma grass covers the entire valley and an underground
river furnishes an inexhaustible supply of good water. In the
early days of overland travel before the country was protected or
any of its resources were known, immigrants, who were bound for
California by the Southern route and ignorant of the near
presence of water, nearly perished from thirst while crossing the
valley.
The water rises to within a few feet of the surface and, since
its discovery, numerous wells have been dug and windmills and
ranch houses dot the landscape in all directions; while thousands
of cattle feed and fatten on the nutritious gramma grass. Its
altitude is about four thousand feet above the sea and the
climate is exceptionally fine.
The Sierra Bonita ranch is located on a natural cienega of moist
land that has been considerably enlarged by artificial means. In
an average year the natural water supply of the ranch is
sufficient for all purposes but, to guard against any possible
shortage in a dry year, water is brought from the mountains in
ditches that have been constructed at great labor and expense and
is stored in reservoirs, to be used as needed for watering the
cattle and irrigating the fields. The effect of water upon the
desert soil is almost magical and even though the rains fail and
the earth be parched, on the moist land of the cienega the fields
of waving grass and grain are perennially green.
The owner has acquired by location and purchase, title to several
thousand acres of land, that is all fenced and much of it highly
cultivated. It consists of a strip of land one mile wide and ten
miles long, which is doubly valuable because of its
productiveness and as the key that controls a fine open range.
The original herd of cattle that pastured on the Sierra Bonita
ranch thirty years ago was composed of native scrub stock from
Texas and Sonora. This undesirable stock was sold at the first
opportunity, and the range re-stocked by an improved grade of
Durham cattle. The change was a long stride in the direction of
improvement, but, later on, another change was made to Herefords,
and during recent years only whitefaces have been bred upon the
ranch.
Col. Hooker has a strong personality, holds decided opinions and
believes in progress and improvement. He has spent much time and
money in experimental work, and his success has demonstrated the
wisdom of his course. Just such men are needed in every new
country to develop its resources and prove its worth.
He saw that the primitive methods of ranching then in vogue must
be improved, and began to prepare for the change which was
coming. What he predicted came to pass, and the days of large
herds on the open range are numbered.
Many of them have already been sold or divided up, and it is a
question Of only a short time when the rest will meet the same
fate.
When this is done there may be no fewer cattle than there are now
but they will be bunched in smaller herds and better cared for.
Scrubs of any kind are always undesirable, since it has been
proved that quality is more profitable than quantity. A small
herd is more easily handled, and there is less danger of loss
from straying or stealing.
The common method of running cattle on the open range is reckless
and wasteful in the extreme and entirely inexcusable. The cattle
are simply turned loose to rustle for themselves. No provision
whatever is made for their welfare, except that they are given
the freedom of the range to find water, if they can, and grass
that often affords them only scant picking.
Under the new regime the cattle are carefully fed and watered, if
need be in a fenced enclosure, that not only gives the cattle
humane treatment but also makes money for the owner. The men are
instructed to bring in every sick or weak animal found on the
range and put it into a corral or pasture, where it is nursed
back to life. If an orphan calf is found that is in danger of
starving it is picked up, carried home and fed. On the average
ranch foundlings and weaklings get no attention whatever, but are
left in their misery to pine away and perish from neglect. The
profit of caring for the weak and sick animals on the Sierra
Bonita ranch amounts to a large sum every year, which the owner
thinks is worth saving.
Another peculiarity of ranch life is that where there are
hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of cows in a herd, not a single
cow is milked, nor is a cup of milk or pound of butter ever seen
upon the ranch table. It is altogether different on Hooker's
ranch. There is a separate herd of milch cows in charge of a man
whose duty it is to keep the table supplied with plenty of fresh
milk and butter. No milk ever goes to waste. If there is a
surplus it is fed to the calves, pigs and poultry.
During the branding season the work of the round-up is all done
in corrals instead of, as formerly, out upon the open range.
Each calf after it is branded, if it is old and strong enough to
wean, is taken from the cow and turned into a separate pasture.
It prevents the weak mother cow from being dragged to death by a
strong sucking calf and saves the pampered calf from dying of
blackleg by a timely change of diet.
Instead of classing the cattle out on the open range as is the
usual custom, by an original system of corrals, gates and chutes
the cattle are much more easily and quickly classified without
any cruelty or injury inflicted upon either man or beast.
Classing cattle at a round-up by the old method is a hard and
often cruel process, that requires a small army of both men and
horses and is always rough and severe on the men, horses and
cattle.
Besides the herds of sleek cattle, there are also horses galore,
enough to do all of the work on the ranch as well as for pleasure
riding and driving. There is likewise a kennel of fine
greyhounds that are the Colonel's special pride. His cattle,
horses and dogs are all of the best, as he believes in
thoroughbreds and has no use whatever for scrubs of either the
human or brute kind.
The dogs are fond of their master and lavish their caresses on
him with almost human affection. In the morning when they meet
him at the door Ketchum pokes his nose into one of his master's
half open hands and Killum performs the same act with the other
hand. Blackie nips him playfully on the leg while Dash and the
rest of the pack race about like mad, trying to express the
exuberance of their joy.
In the bunch is little Bob, the fox terrier, who tries hard but
is not always able to keep up with the hounds in a race. He is
active and gets over the ground lively for a small dog, but in a
long chase is completely distanced and outclassed to his apparent
disgust. Aside from the fine sport that the dogs afford, they
are useful in keeping the place clear of all kinds of "varmints"
such as coyotes, skunks and wild cats.
How much Col. Hooker appreciates his dogs is best illustrated by
an incident. One morning after greeting the dogs at the door, he
was heard to remark sotto voce.
"Well, if everybody on the ranch is cross, my dogs always greet
me with a smile."
There appears to be much in the dog as well as in the horse that
is human, and the trio are capable of forming attachments for
each other that only death can part.
The ranch house is a one-story adobe structure built in the
Spanish style of a rectangle, with all the doors opening upon a
central court. It is large and commodious, is elegantly
furnished and supplied with every modern convenience. It affords
every needed comfort for a family and is in striking contrast
with the common ranch house of the range that is minus every
luxury and often barely furnishes the necessaries of life.
CHAPTER VIII
SOME DESERT PLANTS
Much of the vegetation that is indigenous to the southwest is
unique and can only be seen at its best in the Gila valley in
southern Arizona. The locality indicated is in the arid zone and
is extremely hot and dry. Under such conditions it is but
natural to suppose that all plant life must necessarily be scant
and dwarfed, but such is not the fact. Upon the contrary many of
the plants that are native to the soil and adapted to the climate
grow luxuriantly, are remarkably succulent and perennially green.
How they manage to acquire so much sap amidst the surrounding
siccity is inexplicable, unless it is that they possess the
function of absorbing and condensing moisture by an unusual and
unknown method. It is, however, a beneficent provision of nature
as a protection against famine in a droughty land by furnishing
in an acceptable form, refreshing juice and nutritious pulp to
supply the pressing wants of hungry and thirsty man and beast in
time of need.
Another peculiarity of these plants is that they are acanaceous;
covered all over with sharp thorns and needles. Spikes of all
sorts and sizes bristle everywhere and admonish the tenderfoot to
beware. Guarded by an impenetrable armor of prickly mail they
defy encroachment and successfully repel all attempts at undue
familiarity. To be torn by a cat-claw thorn or impaled on a
stout dagger leaf of one of these plants would not only mean
painful laceration but, perhaps, serious or even fatal injury.
Notwithstanding their formidable and forbidding appearance they
are nevertheless attractive and possess some value either
medicinal, commercial or ornamental.
The maguey, or American aloe, is the most abundant and widely
distributed of the native plants. It is commonly known as
mescal, but is also called the century plant from a mistaken
notion that it blossoms only once in a hundred years. Its
average life, under normal conditions, is about ten years and it
dies immediately after blossoming.
It attains its greatest perfection in the interior of Mexico
where it is extensively cultivated. It yields a large quantity
of sap which is, by a simple process of fermentation, converted
into a liquor called pulque that tastes best while it is new and
is consumed in large quantities by the populace. Pulque trains
are run daily from the mescal plantations, where the pulque is
made, into the large cities to supply the bibulous inhabitants
with their customary beverage. In strength and effect it
resembles lager beer, and is the popular drink with all classes
throughout Mexico where it has been in vogue for centuries and is
esteemed as "the only drink fit for thirsty angels and men."
The agave is capable of being applied to many domestic uses.
Under the old dispensation of Indian supremacy it supplied the
natives their principal means of support. Its sap was variously
prepared and served as milk, honey, vinegar, beer and brandy.
From its tough fiber were made thread, rope, cloth, shoes and
paper. The strong flower stalk was used in building houses and
the broad leaves for covering them.
The heart of the maguey is saccharine and rich in nutriment. It
is prepared by roasting it in a mescal pit and, when done, tastes
much like baked squash. It is highly prized by the Indians, who
use it as their daily bread. Before the Apaches were conquered
and herded on reservations a mescal bake was an important event
with them. It meant the gathering of the clans and was made the
occasion of much feasting and festivity. Old mescal pits can yet
be found in some of the secluded corners of the Apache country
that were once the scenes of noisy activity, but have been
forsaken and silent for many years.
The fiery mescal, a distilled liquor that is known to the trade
as aguardiente, or Mexican brandy, is much stronger than pulque,
but less used. Both liquors are said to be medicinal, and are
reputed to possess diuretic, tonic and stimulant properties.
Next in importance to the mescal comes the yucca. There are
several varieties, but the palm yucca is the most common, and
under favorable conditions attains to the proportions of a tree.
Fine specimens of yucca grow on the Mojave desert in California
that are large and numerous enough to form a straggling forest.
The tree consists of a light, spongy wood that grows as a single
stem or divides into two or more branches. Each branch is
crowned by a tuft of long, pointed leaves that grow in concentric
circles. As the new leaves unfold on top the old leaves are
crowded down and hang in loose folds about the stem like a
flounced skirt. When dry the leaves burn readily, and are
sometimes used for light and heat by lost or belated travelers.
White threads of a finer fiber are detached from the margins of
the leaves that are blown by the wind into a fluffy fleece, in
which the little birds love to nest.
A grove of yucca trees presents a grotesque appearance. If
indistinctly viewed in the hazy distance they are easily mistaken
for the plumed topknots of a band of prowling Apaches,
particularly if the imagination is active with the fear of an
Indian outbreak.
The wood of the yucca tree has a commercial value. It is cut
into thin sheets by machinery which are used for surgeon's
splints, hygienic insoles, tree protectors and calendars. As a
splint it answers an admirable purpose, being both light and
strong and capable of being molded into any shape desired after
it has been immersed in hot water. Its pulp, also, makes an
excellent paper.
Another variety of yucca is the amole, or soap plant. Owing to
the peculiar shape of its leaves it is also called Spanish
bayonet. Its root is saponaceous, and is pounded into a pulp and
used instead of soap by the natives. It grows a bunch of large
white flowers, and matures an edible fruit that resembles the
banana. The Indians call it oosa, and eat it, either raw or
roasted in hot ashes.
A species of yucca called sotal, or saw-grass, grows plentifully
in places, and is sometimes used as food for cattle when grass is
scarce. In its natural state it is inaccessible to cattle
because of its hard and thorny exterior. To make it available it
is cut down and quartered with a hoe, when the hungry cattle eat
it with avidity. Where the plant grows thickly one man can cut
enough in one day to feed several hundred head of cattle.
There are several other varieties of yucca that possess no
particular value, but all are handsome bloomers, and the mass of
white flowers which unfold during the season of efflorescence
adds much to the beauty of the landscape.
The prickly pear cactus, or Indian fig, of the genus Opuntia is a
common as well as a numerous family. The soil and climate of the
southwest from Texas to California seem to be just to its liking.
It grows rank and often forms dense thickets. The root is a
tough wood from which, it is said, the best Mexican saddletrees
are made.
The plant consists of an aggregation of thick, flat, oval leaves,
which are joined together by narrow bands of woody fiber and
covered with bundles of fine, sharp needles. Its pulp is
nutritious and cattle like the young leaves, but will not eat
them after they become old and hard unless driven to do so by the
pangs of hunger. In Texas the plant is gathered in large
quantities and ground into a fine pulp by machinery which is then
mixed with cotton-seed meal and fed to cattle. The mixture makes
a valuable fattening ration and is used for finishing beef steers
for the market.
The cholla, or cane cactus, is also a species of Opuntia, but its
stem or leaf is long and round instead of short and flat. It is
thickly covered with long, fine, silvery-white needles that
glisten in the sun. Its stem is hollow and filled with a white
pith like the elder. After the prickly bark is stripped off the
punk can be picked out through the fenestra with a penknife,
which occupation affords pleasant pastime for a leisure hour.
When thus furbished up the unsightly club becomes an elegant
walking stick.
The cholla is not a pleasant companion as all persons know who
have had any experience with it. Its needles are not only very
sharp, but also finely barbed, and they penetrate and cling fast
like a burr the moment that they are touched. Cowboys profess to
believe that the plant has some kind of sense as they say that it
jumps and takes hold of its victim before it is touched. This
action, however, is only true in the seeming, as its long
transparent needles, being invisible, are touched before they are
seen. When they catch hold of a moving object, be it horse or
cowboy, an impulse is imparted to the plant that makes it seem to
jump. It is an uncanny movement and is something more than an
ocular illusion, as the victim is ready to testify.
These desert plants do not ordinarily furnish forage for live
stock, but in a season of drought when other feed is scarce and
cattle are starving they will risk having their mouths pricked by
thorns in order to get something to eat and will browse on
mescal, yucca and cactus and find some nourishment in the unusual
diet, enough, at least, to keep them from dying. The plants
mentioned are not nearly as plentiful now as they once were.
Because of the prolonged droughts that prevail in the range
country and the overstocking of the range these plants are in
danger of being exterminated and, if the conditions do not soon
change, of becoming extinct.
The saguaro, or giant cactus, is one of nature's rare and curious
productions. It is a large, round, fluted column that is from
one to two feet thick and sometimes sixty feet high. The trunk
is nearly of an even thickness from top to bottom but, if there
is any difference, it is a trifle thicker in the middle. It
usually stands alone as a single perpendicular column, but is
also found bunched in groups. If it has any branches they are
apt to start at right angles from about the middle of the tree
and curve upward, paralleling the trunk, which form gives it the
appearance of a mammoth candelabrum.
The single saguaro pillar bears a striking resemblance to a
Corinthian column. As everything in art is an attempt to imitate
something in nature, is it possible that Grecian architecture
borrowed its notable pattern from the Gila valley?
Southern Arizona is the natural home and exclusive habitat of
this most singular and interesting plant and is, perhaps, the
only thing growing anywhere that could have suggested the design.
Wherever it grows, it is a conspicuous object on the landscape
and has been appropriately named "The Sentinel of the Desert."
Its mammoth body is supported by a skeleton of wooden ribs, which
are held in position by a mesh of tough fibers that is filled
with a green pulp. Rows of thorns extend its entire length which
are resinous and, if ignited, burn with a bright flame. They are
sometimes set on fire and have been used by the Apaches for
making signals. The cactus tree, like the eastern forest tree,
is often found bored full of round, holes that are made by the
Gila woodpecker. When the tree dies its pulp dries up and blows
away and there remains standing only a spectral figure composed
of white slats and fiber that looks ghostly in the distance.
Its fruit is delicious and has the flavor of the fig and
strawberry combined. It is dislodged by the greedy birds which
feed on it and by arrows shot from bows in the hands of the
Indians. The natives esteem the fruit as a great delicacy, and
use it both fresh and dried and in the form of a treacle or
preserve.
The ocotillo, or mountain cactus, is a handsome shrub that grows
in rocky soil upon the foothills and consists of a cluster of
nearly straight poles of brittle wood covered with thorns and
leaves. It blossoms during the early summer and each branch
bears on its crest a bunch of bright crimson flowers.
If set in a row the plant makes an ornamental hedge and effective
fence for turning stock. The seemingly dry sticks are thrust
into yet drier ground where they take root and grow without
water. Its bark is resinous and a fagot of dry sticks makes a
torch that is equal to a pineknot.
The echinocactus, or bisnaga, is also called "The Well of the
Desert." It has a large barrel-shaped body which is covered with
long spikes that are curved like fishhooks. It is full of sap
that is sometimes used to quench thirst. By cutting off the top
and scooping out a hollow, the cup-shaped hole soon fills with a
sap that is not exactly nectar but can be drunk in an emergency.
Men who have been in danger of perishing from thirst on the
desert have sometimes been saved by this unique method of well
digging.
Greasewood, or creasote bush as it is sometimes called on account
of its pungent odor, grows freely on the desert, but has little
or no value and cattle will not touch it. Like many other desert
plants it is resinous and if thrown into the fire, the green
leaves spit and sputter while they burn like hot grease in a
frying pan.
The mesquite tree is peculiarly adapted to the desert and is the
most valuable tree that grows in the southwest. As found growing
on the dry mesas of Arizona, it is only a small bush, but on the
moist land of a river bottom it becomes a large forest tree. A
mesquite forest stands in the Santa Cruz valley south of Tucson
that is a fair sample of its growth under favorable conditions.
Its wood is hard and fine grained and polishes beautifully. It
is very durable and is valuable for lumber, fence posts and
firewood. On the dry mesas it seems to go mostly to root that is
out of all proportion to the size of the tree. The amount of
firewood that is sometimes obtained by digging up the root of a
small mesquite bush is astonishing.
It makes a handsome and ornamental shade tree, having graceful
branches, feathery leaves and fragrant flowers, and could be
cultivated to advantage for yard and park purposes.
Its principal value, however, lies in its seed pods, which grow
in clusters and look like string beans. The mesquite bean
furnishes a superior article of food and feeds about everything
that either walks or flies on the desert. The Indians make meal
of the seed and bake it into bread. Cattle that feed on the open
range will leave good grass to browse on a mesquite bush. Even
as carnivorous a creature as the coyote will make a full meal on
a mess of mesquite beans and seem to be satisfied. The tree
exudes a gum that is equal to the gum arabic of commerce.
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