On the great ranches of this belt, which, we are told, are fast
disappearing, there are two important round-ups of the cattle every year.
Between times they roam free over vast areas of land. In the spring they
are driven slowly toward a central point. Then the calves are branded, or
marked by a hot iron, with the owner's special brand. These brands are
registered and are recognized by law. This is done in order that each
owner may be certain of his own cattle. In July or August the cattle are
rounded up again, and this time the mature and fatted animals are selected
that they may be driven to the shipping-station on the railroad and loaded
on the cars.
[Illustration: Cattle on the Western Plains.]
The journey to the stock-yards often requires from four to seven days.
Once in about thirty hours the cattle are released from the cars in order
to be fed and watered. Then the journey begins again.
At the stock-yards the cattle are unloaded and driven into pens. From
there the fat steers and cows are sent directly to market. The lean ones
go to farmers in the Middle West who make a specialty of fattening them
for market, doing it in a few weeks.
In the year 1910 there were ninety-six million six hundred and fifty-eight
thousand cattle in the United States.
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