CHAPTER XXI. 



PEAIEIE SHEEP HTJSBANDEY. 



PRAIRIE MANAGEMENT IN SUMMER LAMBING FOLDS AND 



DOGS STABLES HERDING WASHING SHEARING 



STORING AND SELLING WOOL TICKS PRAIRIE DISEASES 



SALT WEANING LAMBS PRAIRIE MANAGEMENT IN 



WINTER WINTER FEED SHEDS OR STABLES WATER 



LOCATION OF SHEEP ESTABLISHMENT. 



THE growing of sheep is rapidly increasing in nearly all 

 the new States of the Union west of the Mississippi, and in 

 those which lie on its east bank north of the Ohio.* In all 

 these States are immense tracts of natural pasturage, usually 

 lying in the form of level or rolling prairies but occasionally 

 in broken tracts containing hills of considerable elevation. 

 The grasses which grow on them are invariably found to be 

 well adapted to the support of domestic animals. 



It has already been ascertained by direct experiment that 

 flocks of sheep will obtain their support throughout the entire 

 year, from these natural pastures, as far north as 33 deg. in 

 Central and Western Texas. Ascending north on the banks 

 of the Mississippi, the necessity for artificial winter feed 

 gradually increases until in latitude 40 deg. about the range 

 of St. Joseph in Missouri, and Springfield in Illinois it is 

 required through six months of the year. But the domestic 

 grasses will flourish a month longer there, so that the period 

 of dry foddering is restricted to about five months. 



Ascending north from Texas on the coast of the Pacific, 

 the temperature decreases less rapidly. The variation of the 

 isothermal line (the line of equal mean heat) on the shores of that 

 ocean and of the Mississippi river, has been popularly claimed 

 to equal ten degrees. While there are yet few settled data 

 to enable us to draw definite general' conclusions on the 



* For Census of sheep and products of wool in all the States and Territories 

 anterior to 18(53, see APPENDIX D. 



