Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 211, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1919 — Page 3

Romance Weaved In Cattle Brands

CausA of Many Battles Between Rival Ranchers and With Outlaws— MORE THAN 8,000 IN TEXAS •‘Cow** Thieves Use Ingenious Methods to Change Marks on Stolen Anlmale —Many Strange Devices Are Used-. Austin, Tex. —Romance, not unmixed with tragedy, might be written about the cattle brands of Texas and the Southwest. Around them have centered many thrilling deeds. ‘ They have been the means of bringing swift retribution to a host of outlaws; they have served as the basis for transactions involving the sale of many millions of head of cattle. The records of the Texas Cattle Raisers’ association show that there are more than 8,000 registered brands in this state. No two, brands are alike. Usually each brand represents a separate ranch. It is often the case that a ranch is much better known by the brand of its cattle than by the name of the owner. Owners may change, but the brand never. , When Hernando Cortez conquered Mexico in the early part of the sixteenth century he established a ranch upon the isthmus of Tehauntepec. The cattle bore his brand. Although that was nearly 400 years ago the cattle upon that ranch today bear the original Cortez brand.

Origin Lost in History. The origin of the cattle brand dates back to the dim dawn of history. In the days of free grass and open range the brand was an absolute necessity in order that the owners might identify their cattle in the annual round-ups. With the coming of wire fences this necessity was largely obviated, but the brand served still to place guilt upon cattle thieves. This purpose is still served and this fact accounts largely for the detention of the brands by all of the ranchmen. Ingenious methods are sometimes used by cattle thieves to change existing brands upon stolen stocks. Most of the members of the Texas Ranger force are experts in the matter of detecting the disguising or changing of brands. The cattle brands of some ranches are an intangible asset of great value. These brands have come to stand for honesty in breeding, honesty in weight and honesty in dealing, just as the heraldry of knighthood stood for honor, for bravery and for noble deeds and accomplishment. Announcement that cattle of a certain brand are offered for sale is often sufficient guarantee that no precautions against fraud of any kind are taken. Every Letter is Used. In the record of brands, every letter of the alphabet is represented, and most letters are found in three or four positions. An exception is “O,” which has but one shape, in any position, and therefore can be used only once. True, there is the “O” flattened at the sides, but it is then called a mashed “O,” 'a link or goose egg. “N” is another letter thatis not susceptible of many positions, for horizontally it is “Z.” “I” is another letter with a limited use. It is seldom seen except in combination with other characters, and is usually called a bar. “C” and “K” are examples of letters that are used in four positions. For example, an ordinary “K” makes one position. Turn it to an angle of 45 degrees and you have the “tumbling K”; on its back, horizontally, the “lazy K,” and reversed, a position. There are lazy and tumbling brands In all letters except “O” and “I.’' But when the cattle business becomes general land instead of 100 ranches there are thousands, new brands must be devised. The seeker for a brand naturally gets an insignia

MOTORTRUCKS START LONG TRIP

Here is the start of the long motortruck train which left Washington recently on a journey which is to extend across the continent. t The fleet of 60 trucks and 200 men; said to be the longest truck train ever assembled, is In charge vs the motor transport corps, U. B. A.

different from that of other ranchmen else the brand would fail of its purpose. So in the latter days the letters were finally all taken up and the necessity for Individual and unique brands has led to many a strange device. Many Novel Designs. For example, there is the “Spur” ranch, the “Turk Track” ranch, the “Tumbling K” of the “Lazy X.” Every ranch has Its principal brand, and some have many others. Ranch owners, who trade extensively, and are constantly acquiring cattle with different brands, have a number of insignias on record. Often the ranchmen’s sons and daughters have their special brands and the dedication of a new brand is not an tmusual form of celebrating a birth on the range. Among the peculiar brands is a pigpen, which means a square with its sides extending to form, the exterior angles. Crescents are common. Only one ranchman has a hatchet for a brand. A bow and arrow gives a name to one big Texas ranch. L. J. Kimberlln’s ranch had a crutch on the hip and a coffee pot on the side. The coffee pot design is not so intricate as one might imagine, consisting of only eight lines. Wine glasses are not uncommon as a brand and the J. W. Friend Cattle company in Crotchett county had 1 a gourd. A rocking chair Is thAlafand of the H. B. Opp ranch in Sutton and Menard counties. Lee Brothers had for their brand the graceful fleur delis. Anchors are ,common, but only the John W. Franks ranch in the Osage reservation boasts of the Swastika.

A hash knife, a hat, the Masonic square, a key, a turkey track, a bell, crossed walking sticks, an hour glass, a tree, a boot, a slipper, a flag, an apple, a flower, ladders, rakes, spades, a fence, a doll baby, a cotton hook, a fishhook, a bottle, bridle bits, a frying pan, a pitchfork and even a comet may be seen among the long list of brands. A “scuple” Indicates that the ranch owner was a druggist before becoming a cattleman. Hearts, diamonds and clubs are found among the records of

TELEGRAPH HAS RAPID GROWTH

Government Report Shows I>888,793 Miles of Wire Used by 21 Companies. BIG INCREASE IN MESSAGES Last Five-Year Period Shows 45.7 Per Cent More Telegrams—Par Value of the Capital Stock Is $106,360,237. Washington.-:—According to a report just issued by Director Sam L. Rogers of the bureau of the census, department of commerce, the 21 commercial land telegraph systems in the United States In 1917 operated 241,012 miles of pole line, comprising 1,888,793 miles of wire; sent 151,725,238 messages, and employed 47,227 persons, to wjiom were paid salaries and wages amounting to $36,392,140. This report, which is issued under the title, "Telegraphs and Municipal Electric Fire Alarm and Police Patrol Signaling Systems,” was prepared under the supervision of Eugene F. Hartley, chief statistician for manufacturers, and is the fourth of a series of quinquennial reports on the telegraph systems of the country. The pole-line mileage in 1917 was less by 2.6 per cent than In 1912, but was greater by six-tenths of 1 per cent than in 1907. The wire mileage, however, showed an Increase of 4.1 per cent as compared with 1912 and of 19.7 per cent over 1907.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

NATIONAL TENNIS CHAMPION

“Chiluren first, tennis afterward,” is the motto of Mrs. George W. Wightman, national tennis champion. She devotes to tennis only the time she can spare after caring for her babies. She is here shown with her three youngsters: George, aged six; Virginia, aged five, and Hazel, aged three.

brands, but the spades are those of agricultural designs. The tendency is toward smaller brands. Branding causes £ cattle to lose in weight, and the larger the brand the greater the suffering of the cattle and the greater the loss of weight, so the old-time custom of great brands, covering the whole side of a cow, is passing away. Hides are more valuable today, also, and the big brands injure the; leather. The easiest brands to read are those made with the stamp iron, that is, an iron forged into the figure or character desired. Sometimes the cowboys encounter a maverick far from headquarters, and in the exigency of the occasion an iron rod is heated and a “running” brand is executed.

The increase in the number of messages was much greater—4s.7 per cent during,the last five-year period and 53.1 per cent during the ten years from 1907 to 1917. The number of employees Increased by 39.2 per cent between 1912 and 1917, and by 84.9 per cent during the period 1907-17 and the corresponding percentages of increase In their salaries and wages were 59.2 and 124.2. The number of telegraph offices in 1917 was 28,865, a decrease of 6.2 per cent as compared with 1912 and of seven-tenths of 1 per cent as compared with' 1907. The total income from telegraph traffic was $91,312,567, an Increase of 74.5 per cent over 1912 and of 140.8 per cent as compared with 1907; the income from all other sources was $1,641,803; .the total expenses, Including charges for depreciation and sinking funds, were $80,828,970, an increase of 52.9 per cent over 1912 and of 111.4 per cent over 1907, and the net Income was $12,125,400, an Increase of 253.4 per cent as compared with 1912 and of 113.7 per cent over 1907. The* par value of the outstanding capital stock of the ,companies was $106.360.237. a decrease of 1.7 per cent as compared with 1912, but an increase of 4 per cent over 1907. Printing Telegraph Comes In.

The foregoing figures relate only to commercial telegraph companies, and thus exclude the wire and pole line wholly owned and operated by railroads, ajid also exclude the equipment and telegraph business of the various press associations which lease and operate wires for dispensing news. During the five-year period 1912-1917 the printing telegraph came into extended use by telegraph companies, press associations and railroads. The printing telegraph consists essentially of a sending instrument equipped’ with a keyboard similar to that of a typewriter, electrically connected with a receiving instrument in such a manner that the latter automatically repro duces what is typewritten on the sending instrument. • Without the printing telegraph it would have been difficult or impossible to handle the increased telegraph business during the great war.

Flour Sack of Money.

St. Louis, Mo. —When a farm was sold in Maries county, Missouri, recently the transaction took place in the home of the farm’s buyers, named Hoeller, and was strictly transaction. After the deal had been closed every member of. the 1 family began bringing in silver coins from nooks and crannies all over the house where it had been secreted. The seller had to take his money in a flour sack to the bank, where It took the teller'and cashier Jwo hours to count it. Most of the money had been earned by tw» daughters taking in washing

200,000 ACRE WHEAT FARM WITHOUT a HORSE

By Robert H. Moulton

ARMING 200,000 acres is certainly a man’s-size job. But doing it without the use of a single horse is something else again. Yet, preposterous as it may sound, this feat is actually being performed by a Montana man, Thomas D. Campbell.

This huge farm, probably the largest in the world, is a direct result of the government’s efforts to stimulate the growing of wheat during the last two years. The farm is devoted entirely to wheat, and if it produces somewhere around the country’s average of 28 bushels per acre, which is practically certain, it will add approximately 5,656,000 bushels to the 1919 wheat crop. At the government’s guaranteed price of $2.26 cents a bushel, this represents the tidy sura, of $12,656,00°. Of course all this will not be net profit. But there should be enough left, after all expenses are paid, to make the venture worth while. Thomas D. Campbell is the man who conceived the idea of the world’s largest wheat farm, or any other sort of farm, for that matter. Originally of Grand Forks, more recently of Los Angeles, Cal., and now a resident of the Crow Indian reservation in Montana, where he stands an excellent chance of being elected chief of the Crows, Mr. Campbell has astonished the wheat growers of the country, as well as a lot of other people, by the vastness of the enterprise under his management. It was during the summer of 1917

that Campbell first thought of raising wheat on a large scale on unused .Indian lands, and wrote to the Indian bureau at Washington, outlining his plans and asking how to proceed to lease some of the tracts. He was courteously informed by sundry obscure clerks in the department that it couldn’t be done. They cited certain rules, and regulations and laws to prove their assertions. This had the same effect on Mr. Campbell that a red rag does on a bull. The word “impossible” only makes him the more determined to do what he sets out to do. So he decided to try the men higher, up and the result was a long telegram to President JWilson. Almost Immediately came back a reply saying that the president was much Interested in the project and had referred It to Secretary Lane of the Interior department, who would give the matter his personal attention.

More Acres Tilled Last Year

When this country entered the war Uncle Sam called for an increased production of food, urging the farmers of flhe country to plant every available Acre. The food producers of the nation responded by planting over 11,900,000 acres more than had been planted during the year previous. .The acreage of all crops during 1918, according to figures just tabulated by the bureau of crop estimates, United

The upshot of the matter was that a week or two later Mr. Campbell was in the presence of the secretary of the interior. The first thing the secretary asked him was what kind of a contract he wanted. “Any kind,” was the reply, “just so I get a chance to raise a lot of wheat. “What do you want for yourself?” asked the secretary. “Nothing,” Campbell replied. “I am willing to enroll with the dollar-a-year men if the government finances the project, and if I finance it myself all I want is a chance to break even.” That /lertainly made a hit with the secretary. He saw that he was dealing with a real man, so he asked him why he didn’t make it 200,000 acres instead of the 20,000 he had asked for and added: “Could you handle that many acres?” “Certainly,” replied Mr. Campbell, “only it will require more capital than I had figured on.” Secretary Lane said he thought that could be arranged and told Mr. Campbell to go ahead and draw a contract The contract was drawn and In due time bore the signature of Secretary Lane, all the bureau chiefs and Mr. Campbell. The Indians, of course, were well taken care of under the terms of the contract. They will receive one-tenth of the crop during the first five years and one-fifth of the crop during the second five-year period at the end of which time the lease expires. The next step was to finance the project, so Mr. Campbell hurried to New York, presented himself at the offices of J. P. Morgan & Co. and sent in word that Secretary Lane had asked him to call, on a matter of business. Whether Mr. Morgan had received advance' information of Mr. Campbell’s coming or not is unimportant. The fact remains that he was immediately invited in. Mr. Morgan listened while Mr. Campbell told his story. At the end of the story Mr. Morgan asked how much money would be required. “Five million dollars,” replied Mr. Campbell without batting an eye. "Very well,” said Mr. Morgan, “you may have it. And if that Isn’t enough, a°s much more will be available.” And so the 200,000-acre wheat farm came Into existence, with Mr. Campbell as president of the Montana Wheat Farming corporation and general manager of the whole project. But about the absence of horses from the farm. All of the work is being done with

States department of agriculture, was 367,738,000, as compared to 356,341,000 acres planted in 1917 and 344,793,000 acres planted In 1916. These figures are based on the acreages of corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tobacco, flax, rice, hay, cotton, peanuts, kafir, beans, broom corn, hops and cranberries, which crops comprised 96.6 per cent of all crops in this country In 1900.

tractors. Last fall, when the first ground was broken, there were fifty monster machines at work tearing up the prairie sod. This spring others were at work. They plowed on the average one acre a minute for the working time. A record was made on one day of 1,880 acres turned and broken. All the seeding, harvesting, etc., was also done by tractors, and then, of course, there are the thrashing machines. _ Hence the absolute uselessness of horses about this place. One of the first problems Mr. Campbell had to solve was the number of various kinds of machines that would be required to do the work on the entire farm. He solved this by dividing the farm into units of 5,000 acres and then allowing a certain period tor each operation—such as plowing, barrowing, seeding, cutting, thrashing—on each unit. ‘ The 5,000-acre unit also has another use. Mr. Campbell, as active as he is, couldn’t reasonably be expected to personally oversee work on 200,000 acres of land throughout the season. So each unit is put in charge of a competent farm manager, with a general foreman and a crew of men. Each unit also has its group of permanent and modernly-equipped buildings. It is a gigantic proposition any way you take It.

WHY DESTROY YOUR FRIENDS?

Agriculturists Make Tremendous Mistake When They Wage War on Certain Types of Birds. In the suburbs of one of our cities recently a man was arrested for shooting 83 robins and two cedar wax wings. When we consider that each year the people of the United States pay a toll of one billion dollars to Insects, the reason for protecting our native birds is apparent. Some birds feed almost entirely on the seeds of weeds, others on field mice and others on small rodents. Hawks and owls are considered outlaws, and the average citizen wants to shoot them if he can. It has been estimated that each hawk or owl Mils on an average a thousand mice a year. A recent examination of the stomach of a cedar wax wing (cherry bird! revealed 100 canker worms. In the stomach of a scarlet tanager were found 630 gypsy moth caterpillars. With the continued wanton destruction of native birds, successful agriculture would become impossible and the destruction of the greater part of food vegetation would follow.—Thrift Magazine.

Rubber-Seed Oil.

Th? report of the Federated Malay States agricultural department tells of the method of manufacture at rub-ber-seed oil, with a view to putting it on a commercial basis. It would seem from the report that this high-grade oil requires hardly any refining, is obtained from a waste product available In great quantity, easy to collect, transport and store and easy to crush. As far as can be foreseen, rubber-seed oil will soon occupy a place but little inferior to linseed oil.—Journal Ind. urt Eng. Chem,