"Well, some of our people thought
they did, too. They figured they'd inherited all there was to know
about live stock, and they grew plumb arrogant over their wisdom.
But--pshaw! They didn't know nothing. Miz Austin has bred in that
Brayma strain and made steers so big they run four to the dozen.
And here's the remarkable thing about 'em--they 'ain't got as many
ticks as you gentlemen."
Some of the cattlemen were incredulous, but Blaze maintained his
point with emphasis. "It's true. They're a grave disappointment to
every kind of parasite."
But Alaire had not confined her efforts to cattle; she had
improved the breed of "Box A" horses, too, and hand in hand with
this work she had carried on a series of agricultural experiments.
Las Palmas, so people used to say, lay too far up the river to be
good farming-land; nevertheless, once the pumping-plant was in,
certain parts of the ranch raised nine crops of alfalfa, and corn
that stood above a rider's head.
There was no money in "finished" stock; the border was too far
from market--that also had long been an accepted truism--yet this
woman built silos which she filled with her own excess fodder in
scientific proportions, and somehow or other she managed to ship
fat beeves direct to the packing-houses and get big prices for
them.
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