Re: [DL] Cattle Barons - Marshal looking for help

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

As an addendum to Boone's info below, you might want to hit your local used 
bookstore and pick up a copy of _The Cowboys_ from the Time Life Old West 
series.  It's one of the more common books so it should be selling for 
around $5-$10.

I read it a couple of years ago and it has some good overall information, 
but I don't remember if it provided specific numbers like Boone here has.

At 06:23 PM 5/30/2001 +0000, you wrote:
 >I think that I am in a position to help with this problem.  I grew up on a
 >ranch in Idaho and have cowboyed or wrangled(ran horses) for several
 >different outfits.  FOr a ranch to be able to clear the red there needs to
 >be about three hundred mother cows while a big ranch has a lot more(J.R.
 >Simplot has ten thousand mother cows)  The first step in deciding how many
 >cows these ranches have to to look at how big they are.  In most of Wyoming
 >it would take about 50 acres to run one cow all year.  As far as cowboys the
 >ratio to one cowboy per hundred cows for a trail drive but on a ranch it
 >would be about one cowboy per two to three hundred cows.  Also, the cowboys
 >would live in the bunk house, the ranch house is for the ranchers family and
 >most cowboys have to many bad habits to hang out with kids.  Finnally, if I
 >were to want to get rid of several cows I would run them up a gully and
 >shoot them.  Then I would cut off there head and hooves and let the coyotes,
 >wolves, and bears eat the carcuss(DId you know that when a bear eats a dead
 >cow it reaches up its anus, grabs ahold of the spine, and turns the carcuss
 >inside out.  THat would scare the hell out of a posse it they came across

 > -------------------

Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/

Civilization is an enormous improvement on the lack thereof.
                 -P.J. O'Rourke