A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



own observation. The Spur Syndicate trailed 

 through our Tongue River Ranch on the way to 

 Estelline. Its cattle were among the first in the state 

 materially to be bred up. When I came to Texas 

 one of the Spur steers had "outlawed" in our pasture 

 several years before. He was thrown into every 

 Spur herd which passed through for several years; 

 but he was a professional outlaw, and was back on 

 his range near the T-41 Windmill in our pasture in a 

 day or so. He must have been a two or three, when 

 he first located on us, and was still there five years 

 after I came. He looked like an elephant beside the 

 other cattle. Finally I had him thrown into one of 

 our own herds, got him to Estelline, and shipped him 

 for the Spur account. 



As I recall it Fred Hosbrough told me that he 

 weighed between 1,800 and 1,900 pounds, off grass; 

 at any rate, he was very heavy. At another time I 

 sent one of Burk Burnett's stray steers in. I think 

 that he was a five-year-old; he showed a very heavy 

 weight. I have talked with a number of rangemen 

 who have had similar experiences, bringing up the 

 matter of comparative weights, and in every instance 

 they have shared my conviction that improved Texas 

 cattle of today, age for age, will put the primitive 

 cattle to sleep in weight. My own observations are 

 purely from Texas experiences. A better compari- 

 son would be the cattle shipped from the northwest 

 ranges to the Chicago market, which has absorbed 



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