From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   Cineshock wrote:   
      
   > Hey, guys! I'm a writer working on a piece of fiction set on a Montana cattle   
   > ranch in 1893. One of the scenes in the story takes place while a group of   
   > hands are branding calves. They're not out on the range while they're working   
   > -- they're at ranch HQ. Could someone describe the branding process for me?   
   > Would chutes have been used? Or would the calves simply be "mugged"?   
   >   
   > Thanks in advance for any help y'all can offer!   
   >   
   > -Steve   
      
   I'm goning to say that if they were set up for it, they would cut the   
   calves into a pen with a small gate into another pen, small enough to   
   contain the calf and large enough to work in. Someone catch a back leg.   
   Someone sit on the calf's head. The third wields the iron. In 1893,   
   they'd have a made iron with the brand, rather than use a simple running   
   iron. Likely, a fourth would castrate bull calves.   
      
   I'll leave it to someone more familiar with old methods in Montana as to   
   whether they would be earmarking.   
      
   It's easier to write about what you can see. Go to Yahoo and use the   
   images tab to seach on BRANDING CALVES. And at:   
   http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@field(NUMBER+@   
   and(awal+1518}))   
      
   there's a viewable Edison film from 1898 of a calf branding operation.   
      
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)