198 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



animals during the roundups and it will quickly be no- 

 ticed. 



The most of such "working over" or changing of 

 brands was done with a "pot hook," or "running iron," 

 a piece of Y%- or ^-inch iron rod about 18 inches long, 

 with either a hook or ring turned in one end. This was 

 carried on the saddle under the rider's leg, and heated 

 red hot in a fire. A brand could easily be "worked over," 

 using the iron as a painter does his brush. In some 

 range states the carrying of such running irons was 

 prohibited by law. 



Picking Over Brands. One method of changing the 

 brands was to "pick" the old brand over. The brand 

 from a hot iron shows because the hair is burned off the 

 hide. So the "picker" takes an animal with a brand like 

 the letter p , for instance, and with the point of his knife 

 blade deftly picks off the hair until he has a brand on 

 the animal which shows up like this ^ and is good un- 

 til the growth of the hair covers it over. 



Picked brands are only used where the animal can be 

 shipped or driven out of the country very soon or else 

 sold to some butcher for immediate slaughter. They 

 must of course pass the scrutiny of a keen-eyed in- 

 spector, and if he is in a hurry or the day is cloudy or 

 it is late in the evening he may likely pass it over un- 

 noticed. If he does discover it the man virtuously swears 

 he knows nothing of it and the animal is turned out of 

 the corral and allowed to go back to the range. 



There is not so much of this kind of work done now 

 as there was in the olden times, when men with large 

 herds did not see some of their cattle for two or three 

 years at a time and they strayed miles away from their 

 proper ranges. 



