SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. bl5 



further. He manufactures traits or peculiarities to please purchasers! 

 He buys up half or three-quarter bred Merinos, which chance to have 

 abundance of " wrinkles," (the mongrel get of a very " wrinkly " rara 

 often show this peculiarity quite as strongly as his full-blood descend 

 ants,) and if the natural gum is wanting, he puts it on by daubing them 

 over, immediately after shearing, with a pigment of linseed oil and burnt 

 amber — a composition known in the North as the " Cornwall finish," 

 from the fact that it was fii'st used (as a winter protection to sheep I pre- 

 sume) in Cornwall, Vermont. It soon makes a nearly black external 

 coating, so similar to the natural gum as to be entirely undistinguishable 

 from it, except to a very practised eye. I should say, however, that it 

 was usually a little more evenly put on, and a shade handsomer, than the 

 natural article ! A second good oiling, with clear oil, towai-ds fall, helps 

 along. Armed with these painted mongrels, a demure face, and a cer- 

 tificate of pedigree, purporting to be signed by a " Deacon," and a " Judge 

 of Probate," your ram -peddler sallies forth, Macedonian-like, conquering 

 and to conquer — greenhorns ! 



The Best Breed for Texas. — In the views I shall express under this 

 head, I desire neither to advance nor to injure the interests of any indi- 

 vidual — certainly to wound no man's feelings. But if I speak at all, of 

 i;ourse I am called upon to express those candid convictions, for which I 

 am willing to be held responsible. 



I am free to say, on the start, that I believe there is altogether too 

 much one-sidedness in the views entertained by individuals, and the pub- 

 lic, in regard to this and other analogous questions. The cun-ent sets in 

 some particular direction, and then all influenced by conviction, or the 

 desii-e to take advantage of other people's convictions, jump into it irre- 

 spective of circumstances. 



I have no doubt that every variety of the true wool-growing sheep, 

 the Meiino, has an appropriate and profitable place. As long as costly 

 woollen fabrics are demanded by the wealthy and luxurious, the delicate 

 Saxon sheep is a want in agriculture. The Silesian supplies the next 

 want, and so on down. If the production is accurately proportioned to 

 the consumption, the laws of trade declare that all these breeds must be 

 profitable, (and something like equally profitable,) under the best circum- 

 stances, for their respective cultivation. 



I desire to make another statement. In spite of all the pretences and 

 quackeries of rival breeders, I have no doubt that the best animals of each 

 of these varieties, produce about the same value (not amount) of wool 

 for the amount of food consumed. Some, however, require more human 

 labor and supervision than others, some demand milder climate than 

 others, and so on. 



The time may very pi'obably come when each of the Merino families 

 will be profitably grown almost side by side, in Texas. Your climate is 

 as mild as the feeblest-constitutioned ones can elsewhere find. The extra 

 labor demanded for the supervision of such, ought to be as cheap with 

 you as in other portions of the United States. You have abundant suste- 

 nance for the strongest fine-wool breeds. And who can say that when 

 vou have raili'oads covered with cattle and sheep-cars, that you can not 

 supply the mutton eaten in our Atlantic cities, more cheaply than it can 

 be grown nearer to them, and that it may not thus be made profitable to 

 you to grow coarse as well as fine wools ? 



At present, fine wools pay best in the United States ; and among these 

 milium qualitie.« find the most extensive demand and the most remuner 



