The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-08
LIFE ON CATTLE RANCH
Driving Beef to Railway the Climax
 of the Cowboys Year
From the New York Sun.

T olil ilC -NtN VI h Suu.
 The fiscal year of the cowboy begins in the early spring just after the snow has melted from the hills and the grass gets a good start and the season for feeding the poor stock is over Then it is, says a correspondent of the Out look, that he puts aside his winter ways of recklessness and buckles his belt to hard six months work.
 As soon as the weather permits the feeders" are driven to the fresh green grass on the hillsides. About this time it is necessary to bunch the cattle that have wintered on the high desert" and on the plains where the grass Is protected by, the summer drouths.
 A little later the range and the pas lures are systematically ridden and the lively days of the great roundups be- gin. The cook wagon has previously been loaded with grub and cigarette like rolls of bedding and each buck aroo" has picked out his string of four or five saddle horses, one or two of which are usually fresh rom the bunchgrass bronco.
 The spring ride is meant to accomplish two things, to brand the calves and to get the cattle that will make beef in the fall to good fattening pasture. one might think that where the cattle are kept within wire fences for a good part of the year and some of them all of the time the process of soaring an ugly big brand deep into thair hides and hacking off big fraction of each ear and cutting loose the skin of the jaw or neck or bris- ket so that a bloody piece of themselves may grow into a chin waddle or neck waddle or "dewlap''-one might think that all this college fraternity initiation heartlessness were useless.
 So thought a historic. tender hearted man named Sam Maverick, who came from Boston to Texas in an early day to scatter seeds of kindness and to make his fortune in the raising of cattle. He didn't have a wire pasture, but he trusted hu- manity, and his calves and cattle carried their ears and their hides whole as nature had given them. As the old story goes, the catching up of Mavericks slick ears" became very popular among the worldly, get rich, ambitious stockmen of the section.
 The story became sectional parlance and today Webster tells us that mav- erick is bullock or a heifer that has not been branded and is unclaimed or wild" Also the lesson of Mavericks loss 
 bered So it is today that the brand of the cattleman must be registered with the county officials and becomes legal proof of ownership unless of course theft be proved. But the days of stock rustline are almost over in the west, largely owing to the rigid brand inspection at the larger market centers.
 Driving beef to the railway Is the most important work of the cowboy year Per- haps it is also the most interesting, though physically wearing. Many of the steers are very wild and herd has been stampeded by the fright of one animal that was surprised by bird flying sud- denly from bush.
 Every effort Is made to keep the beef from wearing away their tallow. It Is the greatest of cowboy sins ever to allow them carelessly to go faster than a slow walk. To afford a better train the cattle are strung out single file when the coun- try is open. From a nigh point one can then look down the road sometimes for three miles and see the same living. vibrating, slowly moving thread.
 At the extreme point a cowboy will be driving few faithful leaders or may be riding in front to lessen their pace. Back and forth along the line other horsemen will be riding, constantly on the watch to prevent a break, to keep out strays and to watch the brush patches and prod along the hungry. The leaders will have had their fill of water at the creek and have been lying in the shade for an hour or two before the footsore and lazy trail CTS come along with their cloud of dust and two or three whipsnapping-c cowboys.
 From six to ten miles is days drive, and If the range is good before dark the cattle will have satisfied the desire for pra ss and water Then they are bunched and they soon lie down in one compact cud chewing mass.
 In the early days of the drive they must be night guarded, the men being grouped
 in shifts. each to spend half of the night in riding slowly around and around the herd from one sage brush fire to another Later the cattle can be left alone after they have auieted down and they will not stir until daybreak.