How to Read a Brand

HOW TO READ A BRAND.... A PRIMER FOR TENDERFEET

CATTLE BRANDS ARE not a language, but all in all they do constitute a fascinating kind of American pyroglyphics which to the uninitiated are as mysterious as Sanskrit itself. The dude from Manhattan or Milwaukee is eternally intrigued by them. He notes the glib way which regular cowboys rattle off the dozens and dozens of different brands they see on cows. He figures it must be a lifetime proposition, learning to "read" so many brands.

Actually it's not as hard as it looks. Remember, most cowboys are uneducated, in the sense of having college degrees. If the intelligent dude is momentarily ignorant on the ranch, he need feel no embarrassment. If he is genuinely interested he can learn to read cattle brands in a few days. Suppose you are city reared but are now sitting on the fence where thousands of western cattle are passing by a tally expert at the stock yards. The expert will be calling out: "Cross S. Broken Heart. Rainstorm. Baby Turtle. Bar D. Bar. Cloudy Moon. Christmas. Three Lazy S. Pete Coffin twice. Another Turtle."

His jargon may go on like that interminably. It will in truth "sound like Greek" and it will be even less intelligible until it dawns on you that he is reading off the burned brands as steers and cows file by. He or some helper is making a note of these brands, an official count of the stock from each ranch. It is said that good tally men can determine a count of 40 or 50 brands, without taking a pencil note at all.

You will have no interest, probably, in feats of mental strength like that, but you may want to match him in his glib reading of the brands themselves. You can do so with a little preliminary study, plus a lot of quick imagination after that, and a lot of association with cowboys.

First step in learning the "brand language" is to recognize that it begins with geometry in its simplest form. A simple, short straight line is the basic figure in brands. It is called a bar. It is drawn, or burned, horizontally. On a cow, it is two to three inches long.

If it is six to eight inches long, its name changes to rail. Some old cow hand years ago figured it was the picture of a fence rail and so that name stuck. If two or more are drawn, the name may vary. Three rails may look more like stripes than rails, wherefore the cow man calls them stripes. It's these delightful little inconsistencies that will drive the tenderfoot crazy but remember that the English language is full of them too.

The rail, like the bar, is never burned straight up. This is mainly because a cow's rump won't permit it. Sometimes, however, it is burned on a slant. But then it ceases to be a rail, in the cowboy's mind; it becomes a slash!

Next basic figure in brand pyrography is the circle. It may be called that, or it may be called an Oh. If it happened to be elongated horizontally, the quick-witted cowboy will sing out, "Mashed O!"

Every other cow man will know what he means. They would all know, just the same, if he sang out, "Goose Egg!" We warned you that brand reading takes quick-trigger thinking. The more complicated it comes, the more picturesque.The quarter circle and the half circle are used often, and called by those names. However, if some letter or figure happens to be attached to the under side of a quarter circle, the whole brand would acquire a new identity. Example: not Quarter Circle H but "Swinging H." The attached H appears to swing. Being connected to the arc is important. If it weren't connected, the brand would be a simple Quarter Circle H. On the other hand, if the arc rested on its curve, ends up, with a letter sitting on it, you would have a rocking figure. The H on it then would make the "Rocking H" brand, although the same general figures will have been used.

That much constitutes the kindergarten of brand language, the first steps. Beyond the simple straight lines and circles or segments, brands are just combinations or adaptations, which finally get into the elaborate picture forms. It is the picture brand which is most interesting of all. But about 75 percent of all cattle brands have no pictures; they are just initials, numerals, bars or rails or segments, or combinations thereof. Remember, there are millions of brands all told. Arizona alone hasregistered many thousands, and no two identical brands may be used in this state at the same time under law. (A few states, notably Texas, registers brands by counties).

Second lesson, then, would be a study of simple combinations. On the basis of what you have already learned, how many of these can you read (before looking at the text beside each)?This is a simple E Rail E. Note the use of basic straight lines only.

This is a little fancier, touching on the picture brand idea. It is read T Bench.

Here are four rails in a picture design which most cattlemen would call a Pigpen brand. If you are farm reared, you'll know why.

The initial brands must be given careful consideration, if for no other reason than that so many of them are used. Simple one-letter monograms are not often used because they are too likely to be in use already, are too subject to change (by rustlers) or do not satisfy the rancher's vanity enough. But two-letter and three-letter initial designs are used by the thousands. Suppose rough-and-tumble old Hank Doe, whose full name is John Henry Doe, decides to register his initials. If he wants to he may have a simple J H D, separated. But if he has a touch of fanciness in his make up, he may join the main stems of the J and the D to the H. This new and better brand will be read JHD Connected, and will be more pleasing to the eye.

"Cattle brands are not a language, but all in all they do constitute a fascinating kind of American pryogliphics . . . The dude from Manhattan or Milwaukee is eternally intrigued by them. . ." (Photo by Chuck Abbott.) A lot of people's initials themselves spell a word or a sound. Mr. B. O. Bullard inevitably developed the Bob brand, and Mr. B. O. Paine's brand was called "Bop!" (like cartoonists use when they picture the fist blow). Finally, though, Mr. Paine changed his brand. The new one, much more satisfactory and individual, was a PAIN. W. A. Grossman had the WAG brand, called Wag. L. A. Whitcomb's stock soon became known as Law cows because of their markings. And you can imagine what Mr. H. E. Lassen's stock were called, from his HEL brand. When he thought to change it by registering a line under the initials, cowboys began calling it the Hell Bar brand.

Now, cowboys and ranchers have done things to initials, too. Suppose a brand is given little legs and feet. Obviously it can walk! And the cowboys up and say so. Suppose the letter has little wings as if it were flying. Okay, the cowboys say it flies. Suppose it is stretched out like it was in one helluva hurry to get somewhere, like a running boy or man. The cowboy say that it is running. Suppose the letter, like the sleepy Mexican of cartoon fame, is lying down on its side as if asleep. Wouldn't it be lazy? Suppose it is not fully down but is tilting or toppling. Can't we say so? Suppose it has been kicked by a horse, let us say, and so is crippled in one foot so that its stem appears to drag. All right, the cowboys say so!

Now, to recapitulate again in a little schoolbookish exercise, see how many of these brands you can name: From this point on, the brand language is limited only by the imagination of the designer and of the reader. Many letters and numerals can be combined into fanciful designs. Quickly, though, these more elaborate brands get into pictures.

Practically everything you can think of has been pictured on the rumps of cows. The Broken Heart is fairly simple. The Pine Tree is too. Obviously some man had a broken heart, or some woman. And the tree is just one instance of a brand's being chosen from nature. It is these picture brands more than any other which give rise to all the fascinating true stories of branding. You wouldn't suspect the literary gold, maybe, behind a Broken Arrow brand on the side of a steer. But if you dig into family history you will find where the father or grandfather of some modern rancher had a spectacular battle with Indians when pioneering in the West. Perhaps the pioneering was on the same ranch site, where the brand is run today. Perhaps the whole course of a man's career was altered by one arrow, which broke symbolically against a cabin door. In one such instance, at least, this was the origin of a brand.

This is Miss Katie Barr's brand. Of course it was called The KT Bar.

Can't go wrong on this. It's the Walking T.

Nor on this famous one, used by the cowboy named Chip in the "Flying U" novels of 30 years ago.

Here's the brand of the largest ranch in the world today, the King ranch in south Texas. It is called the Running W.

Here's the Lazy 2 brand. Arizona has one registered brand like this, with a straight-up or standing 2 in front and with a capital P after it. What would that read?

Here's a plain old T brand which, leaning over, is the Top-pling, Tilting, or Tumbling T.

And here's the same letter after the bull stepped on its foot and crippled it the Drag T.

Men's hats are used in brand pictures. So are stirrups, horns, kettles, knives, guns, axes, wheels, and many more of the tools and utensils which a cowboy encounters day to day. Once in a ranch country, two cowboys from the Sunrise ranch lassoed a young buck. They didn't butcher, they branded. Later, cowboys from the Turkey Track ranch saw the buck, cornered and lassoed it. They too branded.

The Scissors men, the Horseshoe, the Rafter and the Window riders all did the same. Finally some dude hunter shot the buck and tanned a priceless hide that held 14 brand pictures! Multiple branding gets into cruelty, however, and is not condoned. Branding is not cruel, if done right. A few picture brands are too "fancy" for ease in burning, and these usually are discarded soon. The simplest brands are the better, so pictures are kept at bare outliness. Thus they challenge reading unless you are initiated.

In the case of Mexican brands, likely to be encountered in the border states as well as in Mexico itself, most designs have no names. They are too elaborate, in many cases. The vaquero or the ranchero will simply dismount, draw his design in the sand for you. Pancho Villa, notorious bandit, had a death's head for a brand. The very first brand used in America was burned on cattle brought here by the brand owner, Hernando Cortez, and it was a beautiful adaptation of the straight line motif. It was the Three Christian Crosses, the center one somewhat larger.

SOME ARIZONA “WORKING”BRANDS