Lethbridge being the nearest railway point, all shipments of beef had to be loaded there. It took about three days and three nights to make the drive which usually came in October or November. Cattle had to be night-herded, and several times had to be held around Lethbridge waiting the arrival of cars. Three and four-year-old steers brought the usual price of $45.00 per head and were shipped to Montreal for export to England. Cows were consumed in Canada and brought from $25.00 to $30.00 per head.

With a big open country – unfenced – round-ups were in constant progress and were the only way of keeping track of our cattle and gathering them. The spring round-up generally started in May, working to the outside limits of where we could find any of our cattle, pushing them back into our own ranch territory and branding calves. Corrals were not used for corralling cattle for calf branding, but bunches of cows and calves were held by riders on the open prairie while a good roper roped the calves and dragged them up to the branding fire. I remember the late Lee Austin of Cardston who could keep three calves on the ground and one on the rope with scarcely any delays.

Generally in the latter part of September of each year the fall round-up started when the fall branding was done and beef gathered for sale. This generally lasted three to four weeks. “Reps” from other cow outfits would follow our round-up, gathering their cattle, either staying with us during the entire round-up period or until such time as the round-up had covered the territory in which they expected to find their cattle. The fee of $1.00 per day was recognized as the legitimate charge for board for each “rep.” However, “reps” did a large part of the round-up work and so we never did charge any of them the $1.00 per day fee. We also kept “reps” with other round-up outfits in Montana during the spring, summer and fall season gathering any of our stragglers that they could locate. 

I well remember the F – outfit owned by the Floweree family of Great Falls, Montana. Their ranch was located on the Sun River, some distance west of Great Falls. They were a large outfit with cattle ranging over that part of Montana east of the Rocky Mountains and down into the Great Falls country. Their outfit used to work over into the Pot Hole country. They never shipped anything under four years old and often had steers weighing up to one ton. I remember the late Mr. W. K. Floweree of Great Falls telling me that my father was the man who ran him out of the Pot Hole country.