The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-08-03

PASSING OIL ffESOl2FENS-c
ED RANGES AND THE
sssS COMING o F tn
FARMERS.
When the opportunity came to
me- 8 says Hugh Herdman, in the
Portland oregonian through my
friend Howard Eaton, to take part in
+ he spring roundup eagerly accept
ed wi ii anticipatfons of health and
pleasure found on my arrival at
Medora, N D..swhere President Roose-
selt did his cow-punchfng in early
day his old ranch, the Maltese
gross. being there still-that Pete"
PeIissieraswas the boss of the outfit,
as well as vigorous for us.
COWBOY. plainsman, rancher, from
sfl is youth up. he knows the country
aud methods as well as anyone Six
feet#four inches in height. and weigh
ing 2ge pounds, with never an ache or
pain, heais the perfection of physi-
zeal manhood. Though he and his
sad lie make a burden of 500 pounds
for a horse to carry, he can ride one
IS far as a much lighter man and get
"a good run out of him. A wit and a
natural joker. he keptsus in good hui
NOR eVen under trying circumstances.
Under his leadership, then. wet set
out from Nedpra on the roundup OF
the Arrowhead horses, which belong
ito the Eatons, and the Three-Bar
horses, which belong to Pete
Briefly described, a roundup is
the rounding up or the collection Of
the horses that belong to the ranch
l#ars InHthat country the horses run on
the open range the year round, and
are not handled at all except in the
spring, or perhaps occasionally in the
sSfaIl his, however, applies to the
breeding and young stock, not to the
s5sadd1 es and work horses. These are
generally kept in some large fenced
pasture hat is, they are supposed
to DE kept there, but native ingenuity
usually enables a great many of them
Z TO cIrcumvent all contrivances, inten-
ded for the restriction of their range
and to HE them away where rope
sbridl e saddle and man modest not.
Each up consists of mess
IND bed wagon cook and a driver.
and numerous :iders. The roundup
is well named Because the horsemen
ride IN half circles on each side of the
wagon as it moves morning and af-
ternoon from one camp to another.
The riders. or circlers as they are
called are told at breakfast where
i the wagon will camp at noon, and
then, dividing into two parties, one
sofswhich takes each side of the wagon
trail they branch out and ride over
the adjoining country in the form of
6 circle. The circlers go in twos or
singly, and are sometimes several
the others by pausing while on the
spinnac1es of the buttes or hills and
aby5 keeping a close lookiut for each |
Other While riding they. inspect
each bunch of horses of the certain
brands they are looking for. Some
times there is only one horse they
want in a large bunch, and, try as
they viii. they cannot cut him out OF
that bunch. Then, of course, it is nee
sessary to drive the entire bunch to
camp and do the separating there. |
The horses that are found are not |
caught and led, but the driven just |
as cattle would be.
this way the circlers often COW
ser %, so or So miles in half day,
part of which must be done with
the horses on the run, heading wild |
bunch for inspection, cutting out some
that are reluctant to leave the bunch,
or8driving the bunch in the right di-
Tection. But at noon each rider re-
5ceives a fresh horse from the herd
that is driven along slowly behind
the mess wagon. No horse is used
on successive days, he always gets
atsleasta day and a half for rest and
food. Those that are collected, con-
cicfi a AZ j