The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-28
STOCK BRASDISa IN rExAs.

 Hard for Fla. cad BsssI hat itis Necss- sary-rhs Artist Corps oonsi.ts ofRop- CTS. Buii-des.evs, and Punehsrs-A Queer Thing About Brands on Growing Ani- mais.
 From the St. Louis Globe pemocrat.l
 "what Is the hardest piece of work that c man in the COW business ever has to do?"
 "well." remarked Mir. Jonas Keith. who certainly has been in the business long enough to know what he is talk ing about. "there are good many things he has to do that haven't much fun in them. Standing guard in the raln or riding around 'em on dark night would neither one be considered q picnic by most people. but when It comes right down to sweating and tug ging and good old hard words I believe branding beats any job ever tackled"
 Perhaps the reader may be. as was. a little inclined to wonder how the mere making of marks on a cows hide can involve any really hard manual labor; but if he once learns the de- tails of the process all wonder on this point cease. He will learn, further more, that 1t requires not only muscular strength. but experience and courage and brains. The average hard-working Missouri farmer would find 1t about as hard to make success of branding cattle in Texas as at building ships in Maine.
 Of course. in order to brand cattle one must have the proper tools. Branding irons are of two kinds-stamping irons and dotting irons. The former consists of wrought-iron stamp containing all the characters in the brand. For ln- stance, if the brand were x T, there would be an iron stamp composed of these three letters, with an iron ham, de running back from some convenient point, as the middle of the I. These stamps were formerly much in use, but have now become almost completely abandoned except among the very larg- est outfits. Their place has been taken by the dotting irons. which consist merely of straight iron rod and a half circle with a long handle attached. With these two implements any letter in the alphabet can be made, and an astonishing large variety of other char acters as well. For instance, the read CT can easily understand how the x T outfit makes It's brand by five applica- tions of the straight rod. "B" requires one application of the straight rod and two of the half circle. This may not make very beautiful B, but 1t makes one which any child that knows it's letters would be apt to recognize. If more elaborate designs are wanted, the simple dotting iroas are found suffi- cient to produce them. The straight rod is generally about yard long and has ring in the handle end. The han de to the half circle is about the same length. They are generally heated in a brisk fire on the open prairie. though on the large ranches there is sometimes a furnace built especially for the pur. pose. .y
 For branding any kind Of cattle prop erly at least four men are required Of these four, one is the roper, two are bulldoggers, and the fourth is the puncher. AS am writing in the Eng fish language. take 1t for granted that my English speaking readers all have a perfectly accurate idea of what these words mean, Of course, we all know that roper Is one who ropes. If neces- sary, one man can. do all the roping required, but two men do better. The roper throws his lariat around the neck of some animal to be branded, and then by the main strength of his horse, hauls 1t up within a reasonable distance ot the fire. The horse he rides is called the cutting horse. He is called the cut. ting horse, not because he can cut, but because he is used in cutting out cattle from the herd. Some idea of the hard. ness of the work may be derived from the fact that during the branding seas. on each roper is allowed from ten tc twelve horses for his own individual use.
 When the roper has dragged and driven. the steer to be branded to the usual place, he turns him over to the bulldoggers. TheAe men catch hold o1 the animal and hold him while the puncher applies the hot iron, Does the reader imagine that he and some other man like him could tackle a full-growr Texas steer and hold him down? Possi ply they could if they knew how, but knowing how Is the trouble. Even one good able-bodied man can do so if he can get the Tight Kind of grip. Usually when there Is only one bulldogger, he plants his knees squarely in the Hanks of his prostrate victim, passes the ami mal's tail back between it's legs, ant grips 1t firmly with both hands. Il might be well for the reader to re member this the next time he want. to hold . vicious COW down. The atti tude may not be a very graceful one but 1t gives the man 8 death-like gril on the brute. The horns may toss vic iously and the forefeet pound away al vindictive rate, but as long as thu grip on the tall holds the hinder quar ters stay close to the ground. It is hart on the COW, but 1t is also hard on thu muscular strvngth of the man who dos, the holding. For this reason the bull doggers generally work in pairs. Ont of them takes the grip just described while the other grasps a fore hoof of thu animal in each hand, as if in the fervol