might take or leave them as
they liked. The deal was closed without further ado, some money put up,
and next day I started for England, leaving to the foreman the duty and
responsibility of delivering the steers at the date specified. These
men, like most other operators, were dealing with borrowed money got
from commission houses in Kansas City. I learnt afterwards that their
Kansas City friends, on hearing of the trade, refused to supply the
funds till they had sent a man out specially to see the two-year-old
steers that could possibly be worth so much money. He came out, saw
them, and reported them to be well worth the price; and they were
acknowledged to be the finest small bunch of steers ever shipped out of
the south-west country. This was very gratifying indeed.

Another revolution in ranch practice was the keeping up of my bulls in
winter-time and not putting them out with the cows till the middle of
July. This also met with the ridicule of all the "old-timers"; but it
was entirely successful! The calf crop was not only a very large one but
the calves were dropped all about the same time, were thus of an even
age (an important matter for dealers), and they "came" when their
mothers were strong and had lots of milk.

Young cows and heifers having their first calves had to be watched very
closely, and we had often to help them in delivery. It may also be
mentioned here that the sight of a green, freshly-skinned hide, or a
freshly-skinned carcass, will frequently cause cows to "slink" their
calves. The smell of blood too creates a tremendous commotion amongst
the cattle generally; why, is not quite known.

I also made a practice in early spring of taking up weak or poor cows
that looked like needing it, putting them in a separate pasture and
feeding them on just two pounds of cotton-seed meal once a day; no hay,
only the dry, wild grass in the small pasture. The good effect of even
such a pittance of meal was simply astounding. Thereafter I do not think
I ever lost a single cow from poverty or weakness. This use of meal on
a range ranch was in its way also a novelty. Afterwards it became
general and prices of cotton-seed and cotton-seed meal doubled and more.

When a very large number of range cattle, say 2000 or so, required
feeding on account of poverty, hay in our country not being obtainable,
cotton-seed (whole) would be fed to them by the simple and effective
method of loading a large wagon with it, drivin