Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-05-18
IN THE WEST.
low THE BIG CATTLE OWNERS IN
TEREsTs ARE PROTECTED.

An Old and Easy Though Dangerous Way
of Getting a Herd That Is Rarely Fol-
lowed Nowadays-The Arrangement OF
Brands and the Roundup.
! It is a common matter of wonderment
fmong eastern folk and others unfamil-
lar with the great west and its ways
how the many herds of cattle that roam
over the immense stretches of unfenced
prairie and hill pasture are kept track
of by their respective owners, and how a
stockman can possess himself of his wan
dering property, assert his ownership
| and realize on it when he wishes to. OF
course the cowboys ride the ranges and
endeavor to keep the herd within the
bounds of their employers property,
and they succeed in the main. But
where pasture lots are 10, 90 or even 30
or more miles square and unfenced nat
urally good many cattle get astray,
wander into other ranges and mix with
other herds.
Time was when couple or more ad-
venturous young men could start life in
the west or southwest with no capital or
outfit but horse apiece and branding
iron, and in year or so be worth good
sized fortune in cattle, but strong pub
lie sentiment working through the agen-
cy of hempen rope put a stop to this kind
of industry. Cattle thieves hardly exist
today, and so excellent system has been
perfected among cattle owners that now
adays man need not lose single steer
if he is careful about his branding.
Every owner has different brand,
and the number of brands in any one
cattle state runs up into the tens of thou
sands. They are most of them of ex-
ceedingly quaint design, and the adver-
tising columns of the western country
newspaper often look much like mummy
scrolls covered with Egyptian hero
glyphics because of the numerous cuts
of cattle brands pictured for the infor-
nation of the ranchers. Sometimes a
rancher despairs of inventing a new
brand, and then he uses an old one,
placing it on a different part of the ami
NAL from that where the owner of the
OllO 14o 4hO
brand is the owners title deed to the
steer, and it is respected.
An association is formed among the
cattle owners in each far western state
to deal with estrays. Oftentimes this
business is looked after by state board
of commissioners appointed by the gov
ernor. The various brands used by the
owners are registered, with minute ac
curacy of design, position and other par
ticulars, at the Office of the secretary of
the association or commission. When
the roundup is made on each ranch and
all the cattle gathered together for ship
ment, there are always great many es-
trays-cattle that have wandered from
other ranges among the herd. Some
times there may be strange cattle from
half dozen or a dozen different herds.
Instead of notifying the owner to
"come over and get his beasts" the es-
trays are either shipped to Chicago, Kan
sas City or wherever the market may be
along with the regular herd or are sent
to designated center, where all estrays
may be gathered together at the round
up season. In the latter case, when
sufficient number have been collected,
the 'estray herd" is shipped to market.
Men are appointed at the stockyards by
the association or the governor to in
spect the herds as they arrive and tC
look after their sale. The estrays are
sold in the regular way, and the money
is usually sent direct by the inspector at
the market to the owners of the brands
worn by the cattle so sold. This official
makes it his business to keep track of all
the stockmen, and the money realized on
an estray rarely fails to reach the owner
of the steer.
The amount of money realized at mar
ket on estrays and renitted to the own
ers through the associations runs from
800, 200 to 100000 in every season for
each Of the several big cattle raising
states. In 1891, for instance, the number
of estrays from Montana solo. in St. Paul
and Chicago was 13, 740, and some $780,
600 was realized on their sale and re-
mitted through the association to the
rightful owners.
The fence question is an old and per
picking one, and many and sanguinary
have been the wars in Texas and other
cattle states between fencers and fence
cutters. 1t has been judicially decided
even that a man must not fence in his
land under some circumstances. The
fence around a 3O-mile square lot is apt
to be in the way of travellers, and when
the mail goes that way the fence has
been declared illegal. But often stock
men don't want to fence. The western
stockman who raises cattle on the un-
bounded prairie knows nothing of the
harassment that affiicts the suburban
resident whose chickens will fly over the
neighbor's fences.-New York Sun.