SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 57 



This great quantity could not have been grown upon pure 

 animals, as they could not have been procured. It must have 

 been the product of graded animals. The best test of the 

 value of this product is that it has become a regular commer- 

 cial article. These facts, and the experience of the Southern 

 gentlemen whom we have quoted, place it beyond doubt that 

 the culture of the Angora goat can be made a most remunera- 

 tive industry at the South. 



TEXAS. 



The sheep husbandry of this State is so distinct in its char- 

 acter from that pursued or feasible in the older States of the 

 South, and is of such high importance, that it demands a sep- 

 arate consideration. The estimated number of sheep in this 

 State, in January, 1878, was 3,674,700. It ranks at present 

 as the third wool-producing State in the Union, although 

 having but about a hundred thousand head less than Ohio, 

 which has 3,783,000, and about half the number of California, 

 which has 6,561,000 head. 



In its adaptation for sheep husbandry on a large scale, 

 Texas possesses decided advantages over our other Southern 

 States, enormous ones over the Northern and Eastern States, 

 and many over California and the trans-Missouri regions. 

 The cheapness of land ; its natural fertility ; its genial climate 

 and exemption from tempestuous weather, except in the north- 

 ers, whose severity is generally much exaggerated ; the absence 

 of seasons of continuous drouth, owing to the influence of the 

 gulf before referred to ; the possession of permanent winter 

 grasses, making the pasturage perennial, are advantages 

 which will make Texas one of the great wool-producing 

 countries of the world. Dr. Randall said, in 1859, of regions 

 of Texas which he had thoroughly studied : 



" I do not entertain a particle of doubt that wool can be raised more 

 cheaply in those regions than in any other portion of the globe where 

 good government prevails, to make life tolerable and secure, and such 

 property as sheep safe from frequent and extensive depredations. In 

 no such portion are lands furnishing perennial pasturage, or the use of 



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