180 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



is the age at which they are at their best. After that 

 the sooner they are sold the better, for they get heavy, 

 lazy and sullen, keeping by themselves, hanging about 

 the water holes and not attending to business as they 

 should. Probably many readers will recall instances 

 where a bull has been used for many years after he 

 passed the ten-year mark, like the famous Sir Bred- 

 well for instance, but these animals were kept up, fed 

 well and not allowed to exhaust their vitality, as bulls 

 will on the range. Moreover they had the cows 

 brought to them for service instead of having to hunt 

 them up on the range. 



Many stockmen believe that an old bull begets more 

 male than female calves, but careful investigation has 

 not proved this to be the case. The same is true of the 

 oft-repeated assertion that an old bull is not so sure a 

 getter as a younger animal. 



Dehorning Cattle. Bulls should not be dehorned so 

 close as to make them muleys, as they need their horns 

 as a means of defense ^ainst steers or stags. But 

 certainly every bull turned out on the range and 

 allowed to run loose with the other cattle should have 

 at least four inches of the sharp points taken off his 

 horns. This is easily done by either throwing or snub- 

 bing them up to a strong post or fence and taking the 

 points off with a pair of d .orning clippers or an or- 

 dinary meat saw. 



Many a good bull has bt^u Killed or injured so as to 

 be unfit for use all the rest of the season by having a 

 pair of stiletto-like horns driven into him by some fighter 

 among the other bulls. With the points gone but the 

 stubs still there they can fight and protect themselves 

 but can not do much harm to one another. 



