Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1892 — CATTLE BRANDS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CATTLE BRANDS.

Queer Hieroglyphics Which Adorn the Stock on the Western Prairies. The prairies have a series of trademarks as general and valuable as those that decorate queens ware, pottery, and editions de luxe. The emblems are conceived with much care,

and a violation of the rights they involve means death to the depredator. They do not appear on paper, nor are they modeled in earthenware or metal. They are traced in living flesh by red-hot irons, and are read by cowboys and ranch owners, from the uplands of Wyoming to the river valleys of Texas. Yet few east of the Missouri River have ever seen a sample of the designs or realize the completeness of their system. The identification of cattle upon the great Western plains, where tens of thousands of long-horned beasts roam throughout the year, unfenced and unherded, would present a serious aspect were it not for branding. Only by that means is it possible, in a country where .stockraising is carried on so extensively that fencing the ranges is almost out of the question, for owners to keep any knowledge of their possessions. No more rigid system of identification exists anywhere, and the owner of a steer is almost as certain of his property when the animal has strayed a hundred miles away as if the home-ranch corral inclosed him. It is not uncommon for a Western Kansas cattleman to receive notice from a friend in Nebraska or Wyoming, saying that one of his cattle has strayed from home, and is in his vicinity, the friend having looked up the animal’s brand in the herd book.

SOME SAMPLE BRANDS.