PALMEROS

when I went to the 76 ranch I must admit I wasn't well versed in a lot of things that go along with ranching on state lands in south eastern Arizona. cattle are cattle where ever they are, but range grasses and plants very from one part of the state to the next.  so I was getting a education the first year there and was working hard trying to make up the curve!  one morning in the spring I was peowling a isolated part of the west pasture, a area cut and cross cut with deep canyons and drainages loaded with oak and mesquite.  coming into the pasture that morning I noticed a set of tire tracks from a duelly truck. since the road wasn't real wide I figured this fool would be up the trail picking rocks from between the dual tires.  since cows don't line up along the roads for you to check them out I turned off the road and headed down into the rough to check out who and what might be grazing there. I figgered when I made my circle I would come back along the road and maybe see who was driving around. after about a hour I could hear what I took to be a chain saw off in the distance. since its illegal to be cutting wood with a permit I slipped on down the canyon toward the sound. but the closer I got I realized there was more than one saw working.  I crossed two ridges and topped out a third when there below me was a little camp, a two ton bobtail truck with high side boards, 5 donkeys hobbled and 3 men with weed eaters cutting down bear grass clumps.  I wasn't well versed on bear grass as it didn't grow where I grew up.  as I watched these fellows with the weed eaters were laying down big clumps of it . as I looked closer I realized that the weed eater didn't have string but a skill saw blade attatched to the business end!! what a dangerous deal but man it would lay that stiff coarse bear grass down in a hurry. as soon as a clump was layed down another fella would bunch up the grass into a roll , tie it with a couple strands of grass, load a burro until all you could see was a tail and two ears. it was taken to camp and stacked where another fella loaded it on the truck. I eased down to camp and asked for the caporal. turned out he spoke a fair amount of English and over a cup of coffee he showed me his permit from the state to harvest this coarse grass.  seems that when tour in the store and buy a corn broom it is 80 percent bear grass. and if when your along the border and want one of those straw sombreros , its bear grass. and the straw place mats that are woven by hand, yep bear grass.  as time went on I found these palmeros to be hard working generous fellows who lived out in a camp all year and cut grass. when the truck was loaded the caporal would drive it into mexico to the warehouse there and return with supplies for the crew. over the time I was at the 76  I dealt with these fellas quiet  a bit. the bear grass only was harvestable every other year , depending on rain. it seems to grow the best on steep hill sides and the most inaccesable places. when the palmeros moved camp they always cleaned up so that you never knew they had been there. I had hired one of the packers to work full time at the ranch as a chore boy, fence builder and general maintence man . never had a better hand and no one as loyal. on top of that our friend ship continues to this day. all over a worthless plant, only its not worthless.