I was curious to know
the value of so complete an estancia. Of cattle there were 3000,
and it would well support three or four times that number; of mares
800, together with 150 broken-in horses, and 600 sheep. There was
plenty of water and limestone, a rough house, excellent corrals,
and a peach orchard. For all this he had been offered 2000 pounds
sterling, and he only wanted 500 pounds sterling additional, and
probably would sell it for less. The chief trouble with an estancia
is driving the cattle twice a week to a central spot, in order to
make them tame, and to count them. This latter operation would be
thought difficult, where there are ten or fifteen thousand head
together. It is managed on the principle that the cattle invariably
divide themselves into little troops of from forty to one hundred.
Each troop is recognised by a few peculiarly marked animals, and
its number is known: so that, one being lost out of ten thousand,
it is perceived by its absence from one of the tropillas. During a
stormy night the cattle all mingle together; but the next morning
the tropillas separate as before; so that each animal must know its
fellow out of ten thousand others.
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