SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 307 



proves that proper " artificial " varieties would not flourish on the same 

 soil, particularly if the first flush of its virgin fertility was a little reduced 

 by cropping. 



WATER. Water is not indispensable for sheep, when at pasture. Tho 

 juices of the grass and the dew and rains supply their wants. Thousands 

 and thousands of good sheep-pastures in the north are wholly without 

 other sources of supply. But, of choice, I would prefer water in sheep- 

 pastures clear springs, or rapidly running brooks. Sheep will visit 

 these as regularly as cows or horses. 



ADAPTATION OF TEXAS. As I remarked in my answers to your inter- 

 rogatories on this same subject, last fall, (published by you in the Graioes- 

 ton jVeios,) I have never set my foot in your State. But, after the expe- 

 rience of many years in sheep-breeding, and after a close and diligent 

 investigation, extending to all available sources of information many of 

 these the minute and careful statements of your own most intelligent and 

 candid citizens I do not entertain a particle of doubt, first, that you 

 have vast regions in Texas admirably adapted to sheep husbandry; and 

 secondly, that wool can now be raised more cheaply in those regions than 

 m any other portion of the globe, where sufficiently good government 

 prevails to make life tolerable and secure, and such property as sheep 

 safe from frequent and extensive depredations. In no such portion of the 

 earth, are lands, furnishing perennial pasturage, (or the use of such lands,) 

 so cheap. In none are the general circumstances more favorable, the ac- 

 cidental and occasional disadvantages fewer. In nearly every particular,, 

 Texas possesses decided advantages over our other Southern States, and} 

 enormous ones over the Northern and Eastern States. 



As between it and the latter, a brief statement disposes of all contro- 

 versy. The sheep-lands of the Northern and Eastern States cost, on ani 

 average, thirty dollars an acre ; and sheep are frequently kept on those- 

 worth from forty to sixty dollars an acre. On these high-priced lands,, 

 sheep must be fed on dry feed hay and grain about five months of each 

 year. Expensive shelters must be erected, or the sheep-farmer will lose- 

 the cost of them in the loss of life and condition in his flocks. 



In Texas, prime and desirable pasture-lands can be bought at two dol- 

 lars an acre frequently for considerably less. He who owns a home- 

 stead of a few acres, can pasture thousands of acres of unoccupied land. 

 The pasturage of much of Texas is perennial. Large and small flock- 

 masters have proved this to be a practical fact. Mr. Kendall has wintered 

 a large and constantly increasing number of sheep, for three years, with- 

 out, ho writes rue, giving u an ounce " of dry feed, or providing any arti- 

 ficial shelter, though he agrees with me that a little of both would be 

 desirable for emergencies. (Pe has encountered wet winters and dry 

 winters with equal success. His sheep are perfectly healthy. His testi- 

 mony is fully confirmed by that of some twenty other candid and intelli- 

 gent gentlemen, scattered over various parts of the State, who have' 

 favored me with minute accounts of their experience in sheep-raising. 

 .Theory would anticipate these facts when the natural conditions of Texas 

 are known ; but it is always satisfactory to have the suggestions of theory 

 established and made certain by actual experiment. 



Your country cannot always enjoy this entire priority in the conditions, 

 for cheap wool production. The success of this husbandry of itself will 

 aid in reducing its profits. Your sheep-lands skirt noble and navigable 

 rivers, Unlike our rough sheep-ranges of the North, they are topograph- 

 ically adapted to the construction of those railroads which the busiu.es* 



