OCR Text |
Show Record The productive part of the County is all East of a line running North and South of Bluff. My boys and I run cattle in that country West of Buff. We had no farms. There were no farms in there. A fellow went in there and raised a few melons and some corn in Comb Wash one year. It was not a profitable enterprise so he quit. I do not know how many cattle you could run to an acre in that country. There were a good many cow men in there 564 at that time. It is a grazing country. It is good grazing land. Sheep and cattle of very well. where the rivers come together there is nothing but bed rock, but South of Elk Mountain and on all that mountain East of there, there is quite a lot of grazing land. Elk Mountain is right North of Bluff City. That is some grazing country. In the country West of Bluff you find the pasturage 565 in the draws and on the sloping hills. There is brush all over their too. We call it black brush. Cattle and sheep do well on that if we have a wet fall to make the shoots come out on the dry stems. We ship our cattle to Denver mostly. We generally drive them to Dolores on the D. & R. G. narrow gauge. Hundreds of thousands of sheep are loaded at Thompson Springs on the standard gauge railroad. Clinton W. Burnham testified for complainant on direct 566 examination as follows: I live at Farmington, New Mexico. I am 54. At present I am engaged in the Indian trading business. Have been in that business for about 12 years. Prior to that time I worked on a farm on the San Juan River. I first went into the San Juan country in the early spring of 1881. I was about 6 years old. My family 567 settled at Fruitland, 12 miles west of Farmington. I have been in that country ever since. I have been down the San Juan River to Bluff City. I have had occasion to observe the river at low water. I have seen it at Hogback, Farmington and Shiprock when there was not any water to speak of. That is 28 or 30 miles below Farmington. I have observed it between Shiprock and Bluff. I have seen it quite high there and I have seen it when there was not any water in it |