306 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IX TEXAS. 



riously affect the liealth of sheep. None of these soils produce th« 

 grasses I have mentioned. The best lands for sheep are those which are 

 dry and " sound ;" which admit of the rapid percolation or drainage o* 

 water ; and an admixture of sand or gravel in them, is a fixvorable, 

 though by no means an indispensable condition. Enormous flocks ol 

 sheep flourish, in perfect health, on the plains of Illinois, which are 

 " sticky " after every shower. But water does not stand on them as on 

 a stiff clay, nor does it constantly saturate them as it does boggy lands. 



It is sometimes claimed — particularly by that class of tyros who are 

 ready to jump at conclusions on a very limited experience — that sheep or 

 their farms, or in their localities, defy all the preceding conditions. They 

 flourish, if we may believe these gentlemen, in stagnant fens, in " hog- 

 wallows," and on river bottoms, where the malaria is almost visible, as it 

 steams up from the decomposing mass. It is true that fifty sheep, like a 

 small family of human beings, will occasionally, and for a limited period, 

 appear unaffected by such unpropitious circumstances. But, by and by 

 comes the destroyer — the pestilence that walketh by noon-day — and the 

 increase of years is suddenly swept away. Cholera, yellow fever, or bil 

 ious fever depopulates the human settlement — rot, or some other epidemic, 

 passes, like a tornado, over the sheep-ranch. The causes of disease do 

 not bear fruit every year, but the laws of nature are never abrogated. 



Sheep tolerate almost all chemical varieties of soil. With the proper 

 conditions in other respects, they are seemingly equally healthy on the 

 sterile, pulverized granite of New England, and the rich, calcareous wheau 

 lands of Oliio, or the Valley of Virginia — on the tertiary sands of our 

 Atlantic Ijorder, and among the rocky cliffs of the Alleghanies. No ani- 

 mal is so necessary to man, and therefore none has been adapted to th< 

 circumstances of so large a portion of the earth's surfiice. 



Elevation. — Elevation is, I rather think, a pleasing condition to at 

 animal, which, like the goat, the ibex, etc., zoologists consider the natural 

 denizen of mountain regions ; and mountains and hills often present the 

 other condition which are specially adapted to sheep — firm dry soils, short 

 sweet grasses, pure air, and clear water. But elevation is of no conse- 

 quence per se; and if the same flivorable conditions are found on plains, 

 they are as healthy localities for sheep as mountains. 



Grasses. — Sheep will thrive on almost all varieties of gitass, when they 

 are first springing up tender and succulent from the earth. No grass is 

 suitable for them, wiien its stems have become dry and woody. Tough, 

 aquatic gi-asses are always unfavorable. We are to give the preference, 

 then, to those varieties which do not send up coarse seed stems — those 

 which are constantly supplying a fine verdure from the root. No variety 

 is preferable to the small, spontaneous, white clover of the north, or the 

 finest spontaneous musquite grasses of Texas. Red clover, Timothy, 

 June, or Blue grass ;* indeed, all the grasses cultivated in the north, will 

 do very well if kept fed down, and this might be the case with many of 

 the coarser varieties in Texas. Some small flock-masters have fancied 

 that sheep would thrive on the dry stems of tall, coarse grasses — because 

 they thrive among them. But a few sheep will find tender, nutritious 

 plants, which are screened from casual observation among these taller 

 ones. When the former are gone, sheep will promptly and visibly fall ofl 

 in condition. 



The fact that the natural grass is too coarse for sheep, by no means 



• I am not gure that the pureprass of New York and the Blue grass of Kentucky arc the sainr never 

 kaving specially inveeligalea the subject : hut the late Mr. Clay wrots me that they w«re the tame. 



