We erected a tannery building, two stories, 45x80, with modern improvements and conveniences, at a cost of $10,000 (ten thousand). Most of the materials, mason and carpenter work were furnished as capital stock by such persons as were able and desired an interest in our institution.
The larger portion of this work was done in the winter season, when no other employment could be had, one-fourth being paid in merchandise to such as needed. We gained, by this measure, additional capital, as well as twenty or thirty new stockholders, without encroaching much on any one's property or business. This tannery has been operated during the past nine years with success and reasonable profits, producing an excellent quality of leather, from $8,000 to $10,000 (eight thousand to ten thousand) annually. We connected with this branch of industry a boot and shoe shop; also, a saddle and harness shop, drawing our dividends in the articles manufactured in those departments.
Our next enterprise was the establishing of a woolen factory, following the same course as in putting up the tannery—procuring the building materials, doing the mason and carpenter work in the season when laborers would otherwise have been unemployed. This, also, added to our capital—increasing the number of our stockholders without interrupting any man's business. The profits of the mercantile department, with some additional capital, purchased the machinery. During the past seven years this factory has done a satisfactory business, and we have not been necessitated to close for lack of wool, winter or summer, and have manufactured about $40,000 (forty thousand) worth of goods annually. This establishment, with its appurtenances, cost about $35,000 (thirty-five thousand).
With the view of probable difficulty in obtaining wool, we now started a sheep herd, commencing with fifteen hundred head, supplied by various individuals who could spare them, as capital stock. They now number five thousand, and prove a great help to our factory in times like these, when money is scarce, and cash demanded for wool.
Our next business was the establishment of a dairy; and, having selected a suitable ranch, we commenced with sixty cows; erected some temporary buildings, making a small investment in vats, hoops, presses, etc., all of which have been gradually improved till, perhaps, now it is the finest, best and most commodious of any dairy in this Territory. The past two years we have had five hundred milch cows, producing, each season, in the neighborhood of $8,000 (eight thousand) in butter, cheese and pork.
Next we started a horn stock herd, numbering, at present, one thousand, which supplies, in connection with the sheep herd, a meat market, owned by our association.
We have a horticultural and agricultural department, the latter divided into several branches, each provided with an experienced overseer.
Also, we have a hat factory, in which are produced all our fur and wool hats. We make our tinware—have a pottery, broom, brush, and molasses, factory, a shingle mill and two saw mills, operated by water power, and one steam saw mill; and also blacksmith, tailor and furniture departments, and one for putting up and repairing wagons and carriages.
We have a large two-story adobie building, occupied by machinery for wood turning, planing, and working mouldings, operated by water power.
We have established a cotton farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres, in the southern part of the Territory, for the purpose of supplying warps to our woolen factory, where we maintain a colony of about twenty young men. This enterprise was started about two years ago, and has succeeded beyond our expectations. The first year, besides making improvements in building, making dams, constructing water sects, setting out trees, planting vineyards, plowing, scraping, leveling and preparing the ground, they raised a large crop of cotton, which produced in the neighborhood of seventy thousand yards of warp. More than double that amount has been raised this season.