SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 319 



sheep to be faken large, the latter is by far the cheapest. Freights from 

 New- York City to Galveston, in ship-houses, (water found,) will average 

 about three dollars per head at proper seasons of the year. When 

 enough are sent to fill a ship-house, the usual cost is two dollars a head. 

 The cost of arranging ship-house, keep, and attendance on the passage is 

 then to be added. It should not exceed two dollars per head. Under 

 proper arrangements, the passage is as safe as that of the human passen- 

 ger of the vessel. 



CROSSING WITH COARSE SHEEP. It may be laid down as a settled 

 rule, that the Merino can be improved, as wool-producing sheep by a 

 cross with no other breed whatever. All legitimate crossing, for that 

 object, is confined to the several varieties of its ow r n breed. Secondly, 

 there is no other breed the quality and quantity of whose wool is not im- 

 proved by a Merino cross. It is a matter of economy first to stock an 

 extensive wool estancia with coarse, cheap breeds of sheep. Any thing, 

 from English long-\vools down to the puny, miserable Mexican sheep, can 

 be used ; and with well-selected rams, (medium-sized, compact, oily, 

 gummy, and heavy-fleeced American Merinos,) the rapidity of the im- 

 provement will appear almost miraculous to inexperienced persons. In 

 selecting the coarse sheep, the carcass is of vastly more importance than 

 the fleece, and hence the Mexicans are the least valuable. But even they 

 are preferable to nothing. 



Kone but the full-blood Merino ram should be used under any circum- 

 stances. A different course would, at best, lead to a retardation of the 

 desired improvement, of more amount than many times the cost of tho 

 necessary full-blood rams ; and the degree and kind of improvement 

 would become wholly a matter of uncertainty. 



Every breeder whose means admit of it, will do well also to start with 

 a more limited flock of full-blood ewes. They constitute the foundation 

 of a future pure flock, and are the nursery to draw rams from, without 

 the expense of resorting to new purchases every two or three years. To 

 meet this latter object, the ewes and rams originally imported should be 

 of different strains of blood, and so marked as to be readily distinguish- 

 able from each other. All extensive breeders should keep two or three 

 separate strains of blood, for the convenience of purchasers. 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. Every new breeder should start with 

 an established system of marks which will at once point out to him the 

 blood of the particular animal. The brands may be cut out of wood, or 

 constructed of iron, and they are dipped in some pigment and applied to 

 the sheep (to prevent mistakes) as soon as it is sheared. On one side 

 stamp the owner's initials, on the other a cross, a circle, a triangle, or the 

 like, ( or a combination of these marks,) to indicate the precise family. 



Every sheep of inferior carcass of fleece, should receive a mark at 

 shearing, which indicates that it is to be killed or sold. 



On the subject of winter shelter and keep, I shall here offer nothing. 

 In this particular, experience is the only guide. 



But I repeat my former adjuration, to keep down the dogs that curse 

 of sheep-raising in Virginia, the Carolinas, etc., which is more fatal than 

 all others, and which it is next to impossible to get rid of, where it has 

 once got a firm footing. 



Yours truly and sincerely, HENRY S. RANDALL. 



Cortland Village, New- York, Aug. 12, 1859. 



