428 APPENDIX F. 



This I cut while the fodder was green, before frost, shocking it in the 

 field and drawing in after the ground froze. This I found excellent 

 feed. I fed it once a day, usually at noon. After that was used up I 

 fed corn hi the ear to all except my yearling lambs. The latter I fed a 

 mixture of shelled corn, oats and shorts from the mill, mixing it as 

 follows : J corn, J oats, | shorts. I gave a pen of 50 lambs one-half 

 bushel once a day (at 11 o'clock.) This, with what hay they could eat, 

 made them prosper finely. I fed hay to all my sheep twice a day ; but 

 the lambs generally got it three times. 



My sheep have been remarkably healthy. Of course one dies 

 occasionally, but I have got them Well through the winter. I have just 

 finished tagging. On coming to handle them, we find them very heavy. 

 A large number are good mutton. Since putting up my sheep last fall, 

 I have lost less than one per cent, of 630 lambs that I went into winter 

 with. Only one has died. I think the feed I have used for lambs can't 

 be bettered. My sheep are about two-thirds ewes. I can't give any 

 definite idea of how many lambs I shall have, as I did not put my bucks 

 in with my ewes until the first of December. I was unfortunate enough 

 in the autumn to have a native buck get in with my flock once in a 

 while, and the result has been that I have had about ninety lambs 

 during the winter, scattered along. I had from the ninety ewes eighty- 

 four good healthy lambs. I should, however, have had but very few of 

 the lambs living, coming as they did, had it not been for the care of my 

 yard-master. A lamb will chill in one hour in cold weather if not 

 taken to the fire to dry, which is found necessary in most cases. 



I am satisfied that Iowa and Southern Minnesota are especially 

 adapted to wool growing. The country where I am keeping my sheep 

 is somewhat uneven and rolling, and a good farming country. The 

 country seems prosperous. Improved farms are selling from $15 to $20 

 per acre, and unimproved lands from $3 to $10 per acre. 



I am sorry that I am obliged to give you such a hurried statement 

 of my experience with sheep hi the West. Any farther inquiries you 

 may be pleased to make, I shall be happy to answer. 



Yours truly, R. A. LOVELASTD. 



APPENDIX F (page 257.) 

 CLIMATE OF TEXAS. 



THE following account of some of the peculiarities of the climate of 

 Texas, of the seasons and crops and their vicissitudes, I extract from 

 articles on the Climatology of that State, contributed to the Texas 

 Almanacs of 1860 and 1861, by Professor Caleb G. Forshey, Superinten- 

 dent of the Military Institute, in Fayette County : 



