Undoubtedly it is to some extent painful, and could some other method of ready identification be devised, it might be as well to adopt it in preference.

But in the circumstance of a free range, thousands of cattle, and hundreds of owners, any other method is out of the question.

I remember a New England movement looking toward small brass tags to be hung from the ear.

Inextinguishable laughter followed the spread of this doctrine through Arizona.

Imagine a puncher descending to examine politely the ear-tags of wild cattle on the open range or in a round-up.
But, as I have intimated, even the inevitable branding and ear-marking are not so painful as one might suppose.