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.