64 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



of San Diego, Texas, commended by members of the dele- 

 gation in Congress from Texas as the highest authority on 

 sheep-growing in that State. The following notes, which 

 this gentleman permitted us to take at these interviews, will 

 serve to give a much more exact idea of the present condi- 

 tion and resources for sheep husbandry in Texas than the 

 notes before given. 



Our informant, born in Ohio, was early in life engaged in 

 mercantile pursuits in the city of New York. Finding them 

 uncongenial, he embarked in sheep husbandry in Texas, about 

 the 3 r ear 1857 ; settling in the higher region of the State, 

 north of San Antonio. The foundation of his flocks, which 

 now number 15,000 head, was sheep purchased before the 

 war from a brother of General Beauregard, supplemented 

 since the war by 1,500 breeding ewes, obtained from the es- 

 tates of G. W. Kendall, identified with the introduction of 

 improved sheep husbandry into Texas. Finding the climate 

 in the high region where he was first established not as mild 

 as he desired, he purchased lands in the more southerly 

 region of the State, about fifty miles from Corpus Christi, in 

 Nueces County, obtaining gradually about 80,000 acres; the 

 whole of this great tract being enclosed in one vast pasture 

 by a wire fence, which cost upwards of $16,000. Here he 

 found the climate so mild that the sheep thrive absolutely 

 without shelter. He regards it as necessary only to keep the 

 sheep fat and in good condition, to enable them to resist with- 

 out inconvenience the cold wind and rain of that climate. 

 Even the shepherds have no shelter, except such as they may 

 make with their blankets ; and no means of warming them- 

 selves, but a fire on the open ground. They suffer no incon- 

 venience, however, from this exposure, and are always on 

 hand to take care of their sheep. 



The sheep in this district are divided into single flocks of 

 from 1,100 to 1,300 in number ; usually about 1,100, this being 

 about the number which can be advantageously kept together 

 under the care of one shepherd. The ewes, with their lambs, 

 are kept separate from the dry ewes, and the wethers, or 

 muttons, as they are generally called. A thousand or eleven 



