126 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



a distance from water where he believes the outside cat- 

 tle are to be found he divides his party, dropping a man 

 off here and one there. In this manner he spreads his 

 force out fan-like over quite an area, and as they all 

 have orders to drive to a certain point they work in har- 

 mony. 



At first but few cattle will be found. Gradually they 

 pick up more and more here a few in this draw, there 

 a little bunch in that canyon, and by the time they are 

 half-way down the range they will have gathered a good- 

 sized bunch. Gradually the men draw together. The 

 trails converge at the watering place picked out for the 

 roundup, and as the drives are laid out so as to follow 

 as nearly as possible the daily drift of the cattle to and 

 from water they are not hard to drive in. Gathered at 

 the roundup ground, they are bunched up in one great 

 herd. 



Herds Not Large. One reads of roundup herds with 

 tens of thousands of cattle. This, like the hair rope 

 story, is met with in books but in practice a herd of 1,000 

 head is all that can be successfully handled, and 500 is 

 far better. I doubt very much whether any one ever 

 saw 10,000 range cattle in one herd. In the first place 

 the larger herds cannot be kept in shape. They are too 

 bulky and unmanageable. Again, in such great herds 

 the calves would become separated from their moth- 

 ers and never be able to find them. 



Sometimes large herds will be picked up at water- 

 ing-places in dry times when the cattle are concentrated, 

 but when this occurs the roundup boss, if he is a good 

 man, will let the herd settle down for a time and then 

 carefully cut it in two before trying to handle it. 



Branding the Calves. If the calves are being branded 

 they are first cut out by the men. This is done quietly 



