VOL. XXVIII. No. IS 
WHOLE No. 1240. 
PRICE S3X3C CENTS 
82.50 PEIl YEAR. 
I Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1373, by I). C. T. Moore, In the office of tho Librarian of Congress, at Washington.J 
herd. Nearly all the streams are dry during 
nine months of the year, and there are no 
welcome springs gushing out from hillsides 
or in the hollow; but all of the landscape is 
an interminable stretch of sun-dried grass 
and stunted herbage, with now and then, 
perhaps, a 'group of cottonwood trees that 
invariably stand upon the banks of what was 
a stream in the early spring. These trees 
are godsends to the eye and often refresh 
tho weary traveler with their shade at his 
mid-day meal. If t he water would always 
run in these courses and the grass remain 
green, it would be the finest country in the 
world ; but a stretch of country of fifty or 
sixty miles without water cannot be a very 
desirable one to raise cattle in. There may 
coma a time when science, with her artesian 
wells, will overflow this wilderness and 
make a garden of this waste. Until such 
time comes, the settlers and ranchmen must, 
of necessity, lie few and far between. 
All of the available land has already been 
absorbed by the farmers and ranchmen. A 
man owning 1G0 acres of land on a running 
stream, commands all the hind in the roar of 
his possession ; and if ho lias the good for¬ 
tune to own a spring, the whole country for 
miles around is virtually his. It can safely 
Ixi asserted that not more than one-tenth of 
New Mexico and Colorado is at present avail¬ 
able for agriculture; and not over one-half 
will be of use for grazing land. The most 
part of that will bo fed over with difficulty. 
Along the bases of the mountains there is 
plenty of water; but a good-sized stream 
will, as it Hows out on the plains, entirely 
disappear. This is especially so in San Louis 
Park, claimed to he one of the best sections 
of the country, (I will give a description of 
this park in another communication.) 
THE BRANDING OF CATTLE 
is one of the most important of the neces¬ 
sary features of herding cattle, there are so 
many owners and the cattle are always 
liable to be picked up. An ox without a 
brand belongs to the first man who brands 
him. There are a great variety of brands. 
Some of these are very curious hieroglyphics, 
formed generally of a combination of letters. 
I give a sample. In the cut, 1 is called a 
shoe brand ; 2, a double shoe brand ; 3, J. 15. 
O. ; 4, O. T. R. ; 5, O. J. B. ; *5, T. X. W. D., 
<fcc., to the end of the alphabet. 
The mode of branding is as follows The 
herd is driven into an inclosure in which 
there are heavy posts set deep in the ground. 
A lasso is thrown around the horns of the 
animal and the line pa -;ed over the first post 
at hand ; a second lasso is thrown m ound the 
hind legs ; a third man catches the bullock 
by the tail and pulls him over (see illustra¬ 
tions on tliis page and on page 884 for the 
mode); the uuin holding the first lasso rushes 
to the animal’s head and kneelR on the neck, 
and a fourth presses the hot brand down iuto 
the skin, while a fifth simultaneously cas¬ 
trates tho bullock, and the work is complete. 
One minute’s time sulliees for an adept to 
accomplish the work ; and before the first 
animal is released another has been caught 
and tied to a post. 
Another method of branding (see page 284) 
Is to drive the catllo iuto a narrow lane 
or shute, and while they are jammed in 
there tightly put the hot iron through the 
bars of the fence and thus brand them ; but 
the iron is more apt to slip in this way than 
the other and the branding will not, of course, 
average as good as by the first mode. 
A. J. Russell. 
CATTLE RAISING IN NEW MEXICO 
This, on an average, is a business of great 
profit, and many have amassed princely for¬ 
tunes by it. But all have not done so, Many 
who have engaged in it have lost all. It re¬ 
quires peculiar tact as well as good judge¬ 
ment in order to succeed in it. A vast deal 
of energy is Involved ; a constitution is re¬ 
quired in the one who pursues it that can 
withstand fatigue, privation, and be on the 
alert night and day—a man who can live 
with and for his cattle 1 There is a great 
deal of hard work involved in hording slock 
on the plains—more in some localities than in 
others—where scarcity of water is the one 
great want to bo supplied ; for its supply to 
a herd is often attended with great difficulty, 
the cattle leading the herdsman many a 
weary hour’s march, at all hours r,f the night 
and da}'. Along the margins of the streams, 
for miles back, the grass has disappeared be¬ 
fore tliu hungry march of tho thirsty, dusty 
