high gusty wind is most dangerous, as the flames are pretty
sure to jump the furrows, enter the pasture, and get away from you. The
excitement at such a critical time is of course very great. In such
cases it was at first our practice to catch and kill a yearling, split
it open and hitch ropes to the hind feet, when two of us mounted men
would drag the entire carcass over the line of fire. It was effective
but an expensive and cumbrous method. Later I adopted a device called a
"drag," composed of iron chains, in the nature of a harrow, covered by a
raw hide for smothering purposes. This could be dragged quite rapidly
and sometimes had to be used over miles and miles of encroaching fire.
The horses might get badly burnt, and in very rank grass where the
fierce flames were six to eight feet high it was useless. Sometimes we
worked all night, and no doubt it formed a picturesque spectacle and a
scene worthy of an artist's brush. Across the centre of the pasture for
further safety, as also around the bull and horse pasture, was a similar
fire-guard, so that I had in all some fifty-five miles of guard to
plough and burn. It is such critical and dangerous, yet necessary, work
that I always took care to be present myself and personally boss the
operation. Without such a fire-guard one is never free from anxiety.
Many other ranchers who were careless in this matter paid dearly for it.
These fires were dangerous in other ways. A dear old friend of mine was
caught by and burnt to death in one. Another man, a near neighbour, when
driving a team of mules, got caught likewise, and very nearly lost his
life. He was badly burnt and lost his team.

Hitherto it had been the universal custom of cattlemen to use "grade"
bulls, many of them, alas! mere "scrubs" of no breeding at all. No one
used pure-bred registered bulls except to raise "grade" bulls with. I
determined to use "registered" pure-bred bulls alone, and no others, to
raise _steers_ with, and was the first man to my knowledge to do so.
Neighbours ridiculed the idea, saying that they would not get many
calves, that they could not or would not "rustle"--that is, they would
not get about with the cows--that they would need nursing and feeding
and would not stand the climate. Well, I went east, selected and bought
at very reasonable figures the number needed, all very high bred, indeed
some of them fashionably so, and took them to the ranch. By the way,
bulls were not called bulls