The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-10-09
HOW THE BRAND
INSPECTORS WORK
Their Vigilance and knowledge
of Brands Have Put Cattle
Rustler Out of Business.

Brand inspection at the stock yards is
q fine art; eventually with the fencing
up of the open range 1t may become Il
lost art, but for % years past ihe com
plicated system has been essential to tho
profitable carrying on of the western bcof
making Industry, says the Breeders Ga
zette. 1t is the only system ever invented
that is proof positive against loss aad
theft. The brand Inspector became in the
early SOS the Nemesis of that picturesque
cr.miilal of The plans, the cattle rustler.
TO discharge tho functions OF a brand
inspector al any of the great I've stociS
/ markets requires good horsomansiip, a
rugged constitution and above all a re
teutive memory. 1t is the multiplicity of
| the brands that is calculated to drive an
ordinary man to distraction and yet armed
with nothing but a thorough knowledge
of every curiously des.gned crSptogram
that ever disiigured a bovine back, a
brand inspector literally wades through n
sea of cattle Dolly. deslEnates stray cat
tie by the hundred and by mere word of
mouth insurcs payment to their owners of
the exact purchase prices as though the
cattle had been consigned III inc regular
way.
Frank Braincrd, the veteran of the Wyo-
ming and South Dakota association at
Chicago. was once asked how he lifted
himself for his task. II learned the
brands from the steers backs" he re-
pllcd. You COulNI l 40 II ny Studying IL
brand book a hundred years."
And yet there are brand books, ponder
Gus tones, wherein Is recorded an outline
bf every ownership device ever registered.
Brand inspection at the stock yards as
It is developed today dates back to 1889
Mhen the Wyoming association inaug-
irated 1t. AT that time ruStling was cost
Ing cattlemen running stock on the open
range an incompatible sum annually.
Rustlers ran off cattle IN bra2en fashion.
shipping then to Chicago and other mar
licts and coolly pocketing the proceeds. In
1883 the Wyoming association assigned
Henry Strouder and Frank Brainerd to tho
task Of preventing the sale of rustled cat
lie In this manner. Their early inspection
efforts were confined to trains while tho
cattle were IN transit, but the evolution OF
the system carried 1T to the stock yards.
Rustlcrs discovered to their 6isnlay that
they could gather and ship beef. but that
the proceeds were promptly RENTED by
the inspectors to the owners they had
robbed. Fertile i'm resource they at
tempted To sell their booty to feeders in
the corn belt. but this plan was promptly
frustrated by an all-the-year-round In
spection. Every market day of the year
at the great markets vigilance unccasins
IS exercised by inspectors of the TEXAS.
Colorado. Wyoming, South Dakota, Mon
tana and other associations This neces-
|eitates riding alleys in all weatllers. a
branded animal stolen and marked by Tho
feed lot route has no more chance of
evading the eagle eye of the inspector
than one rustlcd a few days since. The
system has no vulnerable point. .
Checkmated elsewhere the cattle thief
displayed his ingenuity by doctorini;
brands. Acids, scissors and other means
were used and this method produced re-
suits for a brief period, but The skilled
inspector is seldom deceived hy a doc
tored brand now. Not infrequently sus-
pected cattle are slaughtered and the hide
subjected to microscopic reading before tho
identity of the original brand thus doc
tored can he determined. So perfect has
the system become that the cattleman Is
immune from criminal aggression. He
may suffer the loss of a few cattle con.
vertcd into beef on the range, but as n
commercial proposition rustling is u dead
industry,