PART IIL 



SHEEP MANAGEMENT IN THE WESTERN STATES. 



SHEEP MANAGEMENT IN NEW MEXICO. 



Having from time to time received considerable inquiry re- 

 specting New Mexico as a sheep-raising country and the methods 

 of management adopted in this and other western states, the 

 writer felt that considerable value could be added to this work by 

 soliciting an article from the pen of some practical sheepman, 

 and with that idea in view my esteemed friend, Mr. Harry L. 

 Park, a well-known sheepman and writer of Lake Valley, was 

 commissioned to do the work and the following interesting con- 

 tribution is his: 



New Mexico is the oldest sheep-raising state in the Union, 

 according to the history of the old Spanish colonies. Six head 

 of Spanish Merino sheep were brought to Santa Fe in one of the 

 Spanish colonizing expeditions and, judging from the records of 

 the old Santa Fe Colony, these sheep were the first domesticated 

 sheep to set foot upon what is now known as the United States. 

 Other importations of Spanish Merinos followed and it was but 

 a matter of a few years before there were quite extensive flocks of 

 sheep in different parts of the territory, which probably almost 

 entirely descended from these original Spanish Merino importa- 

 tions since we have no record of any other breeds being imported 

 up to about this time. 



Although these original Spanish Merino importations were 

 naturally wrinkly, greasy and heavy shearers, the sheep found in 

 the possession of the natives before any fresh blood was intro- 

 duced by the Americans were an entirely different class and had 

 none of the characteristics of the old Spanish Merinos, unless it 

 was their light bone. Instead they were a smooth-bodied, coarse- 

 wooled sheep, with bare bellies and legs, light bone, long legs, 

 with little flesh on them, and their wool grading almost entirely 

 carpet. They would shear from three to four pounds per year. 

 When full grown the fat wethers would seldom weigh over ninety 

 pounds. 



Now, whether these sheep degenerated from the original Span- 

 ish Merinos by in-breeding, helped along by the warm climate, or 

 were slightly mixed with some breed of native mountain sheep 

 once occupying the mountains of New Mexico, we do not know, 

 but we are inclined to believe in the former theory. 



The grasses of New Mexico are peculiarly adapted to sheep 



