The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-07-19
Colorado Herdsmen.

For ten days q hundred men have been
sweeping every nook and corner of the
country, gathering in, rounding up, and
cutting out their stock. Men were here
from Wyoming and various parts of
Colorado, eagerly watching every round
up TO catch a glimpse of the peculiar
mark or brand that should indicate an
animal of their own number. They
adopt half military plan, by appoint
ing new captain for each separate
roundup. Before disbanding the place
of assembling is designated for the fol-
lowing day. which is sometimes fifteen
or twenty miles distant from the pre-.
ceding round up. Early in the morn
ing horsemen may be seen radiating
from a common center and scattering
over the plains to every point of the
compass, and from 10 o'clock am. until
p. m. they come stringng in from
as many directions, each with lot OF
cattle numbering from dozen head up
to sometimes several hundred. AS fast
as the small lots are driven in they are
assembled in one general herd, and sur
rounded by enough horsemen TO hold
them until the roundup is completed,
when the work of cutting out commences.
Getting them together is only exhilerat-
ing exercise, but cutting them out is
quite different thing. From five
hundred to two thousand head consti-
tute the usual number at each round.
up, and they are so densely jammed to-
gether in body that if one moves 1t
puts the whole herd in motion; thus
with their long horns in the air they
sway back and forth like a leafess forest
shaken in the wind.
Six or eight men are designated as
bu6aros, whose duty it is TO ride into
the herd, and, like so many wild In
dams, in herd of buffalo, they dash
among them whip in hand, select each
an animal bearing the proper brand, and
| squirting their horses to their utmost
speed, they run the gauntlet of a thou
sand bristling horns, dash out OF the ex-
cited herd through the surrounding
picket line of men, and out into the
open country beyond, where the poor
brute is left to ponder over the sudden
change, while the bukaros return to the
herd and 20 through with another ex'
citing chase. About every half hour
they are relieved by fresh men and
horses, and so the wild excitemant con
tinues amid the din and confusion OF
perhaps fifteen hundred older cattle and
half that many calves in the beginning
and ali striving their best at once to see
which shall out-bawl the other, until
each man has separated from the main
herd the entire number bearing hi:
brand. The labor is not long, but ex'
tremely severe while it lasts.
Horses and riders are severely taxed
and some of the calves get their lives
crushed out of them, and occasionally
the older ones succumb from being ovel
driven. Pending the cutting out period
disputes sometimes arise between some
of the different stockmen over cattle
with dim brands, or such as have M
brands at all. In this, as in othel
counties, men are finding more stock
than they anticipated, and out Of th'
several thousand head that have come
under my observation, not one have
seen but was in thriving condition
apd very many of them are fit for tbs
butchers stall. 1t is now well under
stood that seven per cent. will cove
the entire loss of the stock in Northern
Colorado for the past winter.-Fort Col
LinS Cor. Denver Nel0S.