d easy on that score.
The date for receiving arrived and found us all ready and waiting.

The first herd was announced to arrive on the 25th of March. I met it
ten miles from the ranch. My man assured me that the brand as gathered
was intact and that it would run fifty per cent dry cows and steers
over two years old. A number of mature beeves even were noticeable and
younger steers were numerous, while the miscellany of the herd ran to
every class and condition of the bovine race. Two other brands were
expected the next day, and that evening the first one to arrive was
counted and accepted. The next morning the entire herd was run through
a branding chute and classified, all steers above a yearling and dry
and aging cows going into one contingent and the mixed cattle into
another. In order to save horseflesh, this work was easily done in the
corrals. By hanging a gate at the exit of the branding chute, a man
sat overhead and by swinging it a variation of two feet, as the cattle
trailed through the trough in single file, the herd was cut into two
classes. Those intended for the trail were put under herd, while the
stock cattle were branded into the "44" and held separate. The second
and third herds were treated in a similar manner, when we found
ourselves with over eleven thousand cattle on hand, with two other
brands due in a few days. But the evening of the fourth day saw a herd
of thirty-three hundred steers on its way to Kansas, while a second
one, numbering two hundred more than the first, was lopped off from
the mixed stuff and started west for the Double Mountain Fork.

The situation was eased. A conveyance had been sent to the railroad to
meet my partner, and before he and Edwards arrived two other brands
had been received. A herd of thirty-five hundred dry cows was approved
and started at once for the Indian Territory, while a second one
moved out for the west, cleaning up the holdings of mixed stuff.
The congestion was again relieved, and as the next few brands were
expected to run light in steers, everything except cows was held under
herd until all had been received. The final contingent came in from
Wise County and were shaped up, and the last herd of cows, completing
ten thousand five hundred, started for the Washita agency. I still had
nearly sixty-five hundred steers on hand, and cutting back all of a
small overplus of thin light cows, I had three brands of steers cut
into one herd and four into another,