S20 SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS. 



SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS. 



BY GEORGE W. KENDALL, ESQ. 



On commencing a third article on " Sheep Raising in Texas," 

 my experience for another year, or since September, 1858, I find that I 

 have but a repetition of the same old story to offer the many readers of 

 your valuable almanac ; my good fortune has continued without an inter 

 ruption, and my losses amount to next to nothing. My flocks have all 

 been extremely healthy, and in the best possible condition, while the few 

 losses I have sustained, (not one per cent, probably,) have mostly resulted 

 from casualty or accident of some kind ; no disease has visited my folds. 

 You may recollect, that I last year said that I could not hope for a con- 

 tinuance of such good luck or fortune as had followed me through the 

 years '56-7 and a part of '58 ; it has continued up to this 1st of August, 

 1859, and my sheep are now in finer order than I have ever before seen 

 them. 



In the fall and early winter of 1858, or during the months of October, 

 November, and December, I felt not a little uneasy about the effect of 

 the acorns, of which we had a most abundant crop in the mountains. I 

 had read in one book that they were hurtful to sheep ; I had been told, 

 by those who pretended to know, that their effect would certainly be 

 injurious. To keep my flocks away from them was entirely out of the 

 question ; within a hundred yards of the pens where they were nightly 

 kept, and in almost every direction, they must enter an oak range when 

 turned out in the morning, every tree loaded heavily with acorns. The 

 sheep devoured them with avidity, would run from tree to tree in the 

 morning searching for such as had dropped fresh during the night, and 

 this continued until the heaviest mast we have had in many years was 

 exhausted. What with the grass they cropped meanwhile, (and it was 

 noticed that each day the sheep would graze for hours,) they would come 

 home to their pens at night well filled. And all this time the flocks were 

 bright, healthy, and never in better condition, thus proving past all doubt, 

 that acorns, instead of being injurious to sheep, are a positive benefit, 

 and hereafter the heavier the mast may be at my place, the better I shall 

 like it. 



In April last, at shearing time, I smeared the noses of my sheep, and 

 especially the lambs, bountifully with tar, and so far they have not been 

 troubled at all with grub in the head. Last year, it may be remembered, 

 I lost a few lambs from this cause ; the tar certainly can do no harm, 

 costs but a trifle, and I believe is beneficial during the spring and early 

 summer months. 



About the 15th of August, 1858, 1 weaned my lambs, over eleven hun- 

 dred in number, all on the same morning : as nearly all were dropped in 

 the month of April preceding, they were then about four months old. 

 The Merino buck lambs I turned into my regular wether flock, where I keep 

 all my bucks save during the short tupping season in the fall ; the ewe and 

 wether lambs I have kept in a flock by themselves up to this time, and 

 all have grown and thriven remarkably well far better than when the 

 old ewes with their lambs ran together, and from one end of the year to 

 the other. 



Every one who knows anything about sheep must be well aware that 



