The Dawson journal. (Dawson, Ga.) 1878-18??, 1884-02-28

SC0ANt oSAA OiAO-1OAR, u Ola ElIIltlIGll
cattle at $40 realizing S24, 900
from his $4,000 investment in
three years, and having two thou
sand four hundred cattle and
calves worth sixty thousand dol
lars. These are phenomenal fig
ures, but under the free pasture
system, i'll connexion with the in
creased value of cattle, they ac-
count for the sudden and large
fortunes made.
Under the free pasture plan the
cattle are all braneded and turned
loose. Each owner has his own
brand recorded in the county, and
the brand is pretty conclusive evil
dence of ownership. A curious
custom is what is called round
up" Twice in each year, in the
spring and fall, the cattle in a
county are driven to one point
Men are sent out into every Pal t
OF the county who bring IN the
COWS and calves. The cattle are
surrounded when massed by the
cowboys on horseback with their
lsssoes. A COW is driven out and
her calf follows; a rope is thrown
and the calf caught by the foot
and jerked down. The different
owners have their own branding
irons heated ready for use, and
the mark of the cow is put upon
it's calf. The process is done
very rapidly, as high number as
lob an hour having been braned.
The hot iron burns the mark into
the shoulder of the calf. Males
are lassoed and thrown down and
made steers at the same time.
This rounding up process is gen.
sially very fairly conducted piece
OF business, though sometimes tie
small owners get tiicked ont Of their
calves. The term Hround up" has
become Of genera. use in that section,
and some minister who was seeking
to gather in church members and es-
tablish his church used the expression
much to the amusement of his Gcor-
gia nearer
There are many remarkable fea-
lures of the cattle business. Some
times without any warning a cow
will suddenly throw up her tail and
head and begin believing, and start
furiously on run in southernly di-
rection, as if bitten by a bee. The
Others follow suit, and the whole
herd is seen plunging madly off
south. The country is subject to
what are called northers-cold, cut.
ting, pitiless winds that bite like a
knife. The COW hiss some instructive
warning of these northers about
three hours before they come, feels
i in her bones, as it were, before
hand, and by some mysterious inspi-
ration of nature strikes impetuously
for gullies and hillsidcs or other shell
ter for protection from the fury of
the nor hers. during a winte COWS
have drifted fifty miles southwark in
successive fights from nor1herns.
1t is comical spectacle TO any one,
and to the uninitiated, it puts them
TO wondering at Ike farcical freak.
There are many drawbacks to that
country. The water is generally bad.
Water is often carried five miles.
Artesian wells are being dug, but
they are very costly. Small capital
lists do not fare so well in the cattle
business. 1t requires large capital
to begin with to make a success of
it.
Much more could be said of this
remarkable Texas town of Governor
Brown. OF all OF our southern man.
n 'actures this industry of turning
out villages is as novel as any we
have, and this town of Colorado is
one Of the finest specimens. II the
fortunate investor had nothing else,
if he could at one stroke diyest him
self OF his railroad and mines and
blocks Of Atlanta real estate and
stock and bonds and be RENTED to
his Texas town, he could safely rely
upon it to bring him sooner or later
all that any reasonable aspiration
could want in the shape Of worldly
goods. 1t will prove a bonanza.
1t must in the very order of things
very soon produce an oyergrown for
tune for its possessor. In three
/ years it has become one of the prom.
ising places Of the great state of Tex
as and salient mile stone to the
tremendous west.