260 SHEEP ESTABLISHMENT OX THE PRAIRIES. 



WATER. Snow on the surface of the ground is neither 

 very regular nor very abundant in many of the prairie regions 

 and, as already, said, many of these regions are very 

 deficient in running water. For a sheep fed exclusively on 

 dry feed, water is indispensable ; and one fed highly on dry 

 corn would undoubtedly require it in extra quantities. On 

 very many prairies there are frequent sloughs which are dry 

 in summer, but which, by deep, broad ditches, can be made 

 to supply abundant water in winter. It would be worse than 

 folly to locate the headquarters of a sheep farm where surface 

 water of no kind is available, and where it can not be 

 obtained abundantly by wells ; and even wells are a very poor 

 resort, when, by going elsewhere and further, a running 

 stream, or spring, or permanent surface water in any other 

 form, can be obtained.* 



LOCATION OF SHEEP ESTABLISHMENT. The most desirable 

 place for locating a prairie sheep establishment is on the 

 banks of some permanent stream, where the land is high, 

 rolling, and gravelly, the grass abundant and of a fine quality, 

 small clumps of timber frequent, and a railroad to market 

 near by ! An undesirable one is a low, wet, level plain or 

 a dry one without water or timber remote from all present 

 or prospective avenues to market. 



NOTE. While these sheets are going through the press, 

 as I have mentioned in a preceding note, valuable articles on 

 Prairie Sheep Husbandry by Hon. I. B. Grinnell, of Iowa, 

 and Mr. S. P. Boardman, of Illinois, have made their appear- 

 ance in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 and also a very discriminating and able paper of a more 

 general character, abounding in the most valuable statistics, 

 entitled " Condition and Prospects of Sheep Husbandry in 

 the United States." I much regret that they did not appear 

 in time to allow me to quote their confirmatory testimony on 

 several subjects treated in this volume. 



* Artesian wells may become available at some future day when the country is 

 far more thickly settled and land far higher priced. From ordinary wells, water is 

 sometimes raised at no great expense for stock, by means of pumps worked by small 

 wind mills. 



