thwest in Throckmorton. This
completed our purchases for the present, giving us a chain of cattle
to receive from within one county of the Rio Grande on the south to
the same distance from Red River on the north. The work was divided
into divisions. One thousand extra saddle horses were needed for the
beef herds and others, and men were sent south, to secure them. All
private and company remudas had returned to the Clear Fork to winter,
and from there would be issued wherever we had cattle to receive. A
carload of wagons was bought at the Fort, teams were sent in after
them, and a busy fortnight followed in organizing the forces. Edwards
was assigned to assist Major Hunter in receiving the beef cattle along
the lower Frio and Nueces, starting in ample time to receive the
saddle stock in advance of the beeves. There was three weeks'
difference in the starting of grass between northern and southern
Texas, and we made our dates for receiving accordingly, mine for
Medina and Uvalde counties following on the heels of the beef herds
from the lower country.

From the 12th of March I was kept in the saddle ten days, receiving
cattle from the headwaters of the Frio and Nueces rivers. All my old
foremen rendered valuable assistance, two and three herds being in
the course of formation at a time, and, as usual, we received eleven
hundred over and above the contracts. The herds moved out on good
grass and plenty of water, the last of the heavy beeves had passed
north on my return to San Antonio, and I caught the first train out to
join the others in central Texas. My buckboard had been brought down
with the remudas and was awaiting me at the station, the Colorado
River on the west was reached that night, and by noon the next day I
was in the thick of the receiving. When three herds had started, I
reported in Comanche and Erath counties, where gathering for our herds
was in progress; and fixing definite dates that would allow Edwards
and my partner to arrive, I drove on through to the Clear Fork. Under
previous instructions, a herd of thirty-five hundred two-year-old
heifers was ready to start, while nearly four thousand steers were
in hand, with one outfit yet to come in from up the Brazos. We were
gathering close that year, everything three years old or over must go,
and the outfits were ranging far and wide. The steer herd was held
down to thirty-two hundred, both it and the heifers moving out the
same day, with a remnant of ove