John H. Latham Sierra County, New Mexico

James H. Latham, a leading representative of stock-raising interests in New Mexico, having a large ranch on which he is extensively engaged in raising sheep and goats near Lake Valley, dates his residence in the Territory from 1885. He was born and reared in Live Oak County, Texas. After coming to New Mexico he spent one year at Anthony in the cattle business, and in 1886 came to Lake Valley, where he began working in the mines, being identified with that pursuit for seven years. All during that period he owned a few cattle and also has some at the present time, but his chief interest at this writing is sheep. From 1887 until 1900 he was engaged largely in raising goats, starting in with only a herd of sixty-seven head, which he has increased to twelve hundred head. These are good Angora goats, which earn about fifteen hundred dollars a year. However, he is now more largely giving his attention to the sheep-raising industry, in which he began operations in 1900 on a small scale. He has increased his flocks until at the present time he has about eight thousand head, and in the year 1905 he realized sixty per cent profit on the money invested, and the average profit is about forty per cent.

He considers Sierra County as a very good district for this line of business from the fact that sheep are not affected here with disease to any extent. They shear a little light because of the alkali dust, but stand the drought better than any other animal. He shipped the best bunch of lambs for weight (twenty-three hundred head averaging seventy-three and a fifth pounds per head) ever sent out of New Mexico, and from these cut one and a half per cent.

Mr. Latham is a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity, belonging to Deming Lodge No. 30, and he also belongs to the lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen at Hillsboro. He has been very successful in business since coming to New Mexico, gradually working his way upward and extending the field of his operations until he is today recognized as one of the large and successful sheep-raisers.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.

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