SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 309 



placed tlu; entire cost of keeping sheep, including interest on land, at 

 tifty cents a head per annum. In this estimate, I included the cost ot 

 shelters, of a month's winter feed, and some other contingencies, ail of 

 M-hicl I am assured by intelligent Texians are unnecessary. I also proceed- 

 ed on the supposition that no lands were to be pastured but those which had 

 been bought and paid for by the flock-master. If these items be struck 

 out, the cost of keeping large flocks ought not to exceed one half of my 

 formev estimate. I confess, however, that this sounds almost too favora- 

 ble to be true. Mr. Jefferson deeply lamented the dismemberment of 

 that Texa,s from the United States which he had bought with Louisiana 

 — considering it the very garden of our Southern country. But the 

 "Sage of Monticello " hardly expected to find El Dorado in your sheep- 

 pastures, or Aladdin's lamp on the bank of the Colorado ! I repeat it, 

 the story must be too good to be all true. 



The first cost of embarking in breeding full-blood sheep is considerable. 

 But the sale of surplus ones at extra prices to newer breeders will soon 

 offset this ; and, at all events, it is so soon repaid by the enormous profits 

 of the husbandry, that it is not to be kept in view as an annual part of 

 the account. Interest ceases to run after the principal is paid ! 



Another important fact in favor of sheep is always to be taken into 

 view. If the steer or colt dies before it is sold or used — if the conv dies 

 before she has produced young — the loss is nearly a total one. At best, 

 the colt keeps you waiting on him, say three years, and the steer and 

 heifer at least two, before they commence making returns. The sheep is 

 a prompter paymaster. He pays you annually. And he never dies in 

 your debt. If he dies before he is six months old, he has cost you noth- 

 ing that is appreciable. If he dies afterwards, before his first shearing, 

 hi& wool will more than pay for what he has consumed ; and this is true 

 of him at whatever age his death occurs, taking the aggregate of his life 

 together. 



Best Bre^d of Sheep. — When wool is the main object, and mutton 

 is only an ii;icidental one — as always must be the case in a large and 

 thinly inhabited country like Texas, not yet containing populous cities — 

 there is but one breed of sheep worth consideration, so far as comparative 

 intrinsic value is concerned. I can declare on a pretty extensive experi- 

 ence — but it really needs no experience to arrive at that conclusion — that 

 no other breed makes a remote approach to the value of the Merino for 

 the production of wool ; and its nnutton is good and palatable. Half and 

 three-quarter breed Merino mutton is especially so, and five Americans 

 out of six would prefer it, on the table, to the tallowy meat of the large 

 long-woolled English mutton varieties. 



Well-bred Merinos yield about as much wool per head as the largest 

 English long-woolled breeds — yield farmore than English raiddle-woolled 

 breeds — yield about twice as much value of wool for the amount of feed 

 consumed as any English breed — and are hardier, and herd (that is, 

 thrive when kept together in large numbers) better than any of the more 

 valuable English varieties. Their length of life is much greater, A 

 Merino is not, to use a common expression, " older at eight" than a Bake- 

 well or Southdown sk "x;p is at five. And, what may not be quite as well 

 understood by those Avho have not experimented with both races, (a» I 

 have,) the Merino is decidedly hardier than the high-bred English sheep. 

 It is less addicted to colds or snuflles, bears extremes of weather better, 

 is capable of travelling farther for its food, and will endui-e a scarcity ol 

 food with far greater impunity. The English sheep has the advantage oi 



