Page 49 - 2007 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e

Featured Article
Cattle Brands...................................1

Special
2008 Budget Proposal.................. ..7
Departments
News & Notes..................................2
July 2007 Programs & Hikes...........................4
Desk Schedule................................6
Bulletin Board................................8

CATTLE BRANDS— parallel lines into a box or a "Lazy Y" Many cattlemen considered this a
You're talking about ranches, into a dumbbell. It was almost like a hideous practice. Burning a brand
cattle herds large and small . . . game. Perhaps the most famous brand was normally done in the spring with
and the West. change was a rustler's ingenious turn- newborn calves. The calf was roped,
ing of the famous X I T brand into a held to the ground and branded with a
by Chuck Kleber star with a cross inside. But for the red hot "branding iron," usually on the
rustler who was caught, the game was left hip. It was also common to castrate
o much of our Western his- over in a hurry . . . and permanently. It males. Fortunately, the process was over
tory and lore is tied to the great was clearly important to get your brand quickly, no more than a minute. As Stewart
Sranches, their cowboys and on mavericks (unbranded cattle) in Edward White put it in Arizona Nights, "The
. . . their branded cattle. The practice of short order. The name originated with calf sprang up, was appropriated and
branding goes back through recorded a Texas lawyer, Samuel Maverick, smelled over by his worried mother,
history, but it was first introduced who received several hundred head of and the two departed into the herd . . .
to the New World when the Spanish cattle in 1845 in payment of a debt. He ." Cattle branding was also done in the
established a central registry called had no real interest in them and let the fall after the big roundup when cattle
Mesta in 1537 in Mexico City. Hernan cattle wander free. were driven back to the ranch for the
Cortes may have been the first to use In time, there were thousands of winter. Of course, it wasn't just cattle
a brand—three Latin crosses. As the brands. To keep order and a record, that were branded. Horses, mules, just
Spanish moved northward, large herds cattle brands might be filed with the about any animal was branded when
of cattle were roaming in Texas by the state in a cattle brand book as well as there was a need for identification of
mid-1700s. The authorities ordered with the county where the ranch was the owner. In the early days, branding
all cattle to be branded. The Span- located. Cattlemen's associations also was done with straight pokers that
ish penchant for artistic were simply drawn across
sentiment over practical- the hide. It was crude,
ity showed up in their often blurry, and easy for
brands. They were more the rustler to change into a
akin to pictographs of "slow brand," one not reg-
intricate design. Later istered. It didn't take long
on, American ranchers in for the true stamping iron
the Southwest favored let- to come along, one with the
ters, numbers and symbols. complete brand design.
Since ownership of Many brands are truly
cattle was a critical is- innovative. The owner often
sue, Western ranches sought to identify kept a record. Some ranches even wants to have something that is clearly
their herds with a brand that could not used additional identification, like associated with his ranch, a design that
be easily altered. A careless brand de- cattle king John Chisum's practice of makes it next-to-impossible for a rustler
sign was an open invitation to rustlers. splitting an ear lengthwise so that the
A little innovation could change two lower half dangled, the "jingle-bob." Cattle Brands, continued on p.6