Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-01-12
MODERN METHODS.
now Things Are Now Done on the
Western Ranges.

" eStFF1A a$NH&cS.
Dehorning cattle has brought new
instrument into the equipment of a
range, says the San Francisco Chron-
icle. 1t is a steel apparatus with han
dies about three feet long and altogether
weighing Is pounds. 1t is known as
the "dehorner It has two sharp
knives, one stationary and one movable,
and resembles a tree pruning fork.
When the handles are apart, the knives
are open and will encircle the largest
cattle horns When the handles are
pinched together, the knives close, and
in a twinkling the horns are severed
clean and smooth. A strong armed man
can remove the toughest horns from an
animal by quick, strong pressure on the
handles. The large cattle companies
have their own dehorning outfits, but
there are gangs, each of five men, that
go about the southwest doing nothing
except dehorning cattle at so much a
head One Of the gang is the roper,
who heaves his lariat about an animals
hind leg and by the sudden backing Of
his pony throws it down. There are two
'bulldoggers. They hold the strug-
CLING, believing animal down, one man
holding on tes&le tail, while another
plants a knee across the beasts neck.
The fourth man manipulates the de-
| horner. The fifth stands close at hand
with pail of pine tar and brush.
The moment tbs horns have been cut
away and blood begins to squirt the tar is
daubed over the wound. The beast stag.
gers to its feet and runs madly away.
Nowadays. also. the branding on a
we'll regulated cattle ranch is done sys.
tematicalIy and with improved inven-
! tions. The picturesque scenes that for
merly characterized rodeo and brand
ing have been supplanted by practical
contriyances for saving time and doing
neat job.
| The writer saw recently one of these
businesslike outfits at work on the Aztec
Cattle company range in Navajo coun
/ ty. There was none Of the wild cowboy
| yelling and whooping of decade age
as the cattle were driven. Indeed moi
one of the cowboys wore the regulation
buckskin suit, with a brace Of pistols al
his waist, as of yore. Hardly a person
! spoke. The boss rode slowly about like
a captain, seeing that no time was lost
! and no animals misused The cows anC
calves were separated and driven intC
different corrals From each corral q
narrow, boarded passageway led to {
/ still narrower arrangement, constitute
ing the branding box. Several men il
the corral armed with long, blum
| poles, drove the COWS and calves, in sin
| gle file, through the passageway. A
the farther end the animals, oRa By
one, were forced into the branding box
| A man stood without and at one sid
with long wooden lever in his hands
He watched the cattle as they emerged
into the box. When each animal wa
we'll in, he suddenly pushed the leve
| down. the movable side of tie box closel
in upon the least and it was held fas
and tight without injury. In a trice th'
bIander snatched one of the seyera
branding irons from the fire and pressed
the heated end against the side of thu
animal There was little smoke and {;
smell of burning hair. The beast gay,
a conyuisiye outery, but the brand-'
huge a. G. was charred in the hail
and flesh. The lever was raised, til,
box widened, and the poor brute darte(
out into another corral.
So the branding went on for hour
necessarily. The boss said that By
working two branding boxes 800 cattl,
could be branded day. There had beel
over 400 branded in day by the use o
only one box.