SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS, 321 



long after a ewe has nearly dried up — when she gives but a drop of 

 milk — thp larab will hang on and worry her, forty times a day, for that 

 drop. It does the latter nc good — it pulls down and pesters the old 

 ewes — in short, injures both. For a day or two after they are separated, 

 of course there will be a terrible outcry and clamor, lambs bleating for 

 their mothers, and mothers calling for their lambs. But this is soon over ; 

 both soon set to work in earnest cropping their food, they have the entire 

 day to till themselves, and my experience has proved that both commence 

 fattening within a week after the weaning is over. The old ewes have a 

 •'hance to recruit and strengthen themselves before frost sets in, are in 

 *iner condition for the bucks in November, and pass through the winter 

 in far better order. 



I know that where a person has but a single flock of sheep, and that 

 <?ock small, it creates an additional expense to separate and wean the 

 /.ambs. But I hold that anything that is worth doing at all is worth doing 

 well, and the additional expense will be more than repaid by the increased 

 ?ize, strength, condition, and constitution of the flock. 



My last year's ewe-lambs, (those dropped in the spi-ing of 1858,) I 

 shall put to buck on the 1st of the coming November, or when they are 

 ^orae nineteen months old. They will then be two years of age when 

 they have lambs ; and I am confldent this plan is much better than the 

 one so often practised in Texas, of allowing yearling ewes to run with 

 bucks and have lambs before they have attained their growth, and before 

 they are well able to sustain their off*spring. I do not increase my stock 

 so fast by following this system ; but I materially improve it, both in size 

 and constitution, and that is what I am constantly striving after. We 

 can all aff"ord to be patient in Texas. 



I shall have some two thousand ewes to put to buck this fall. Of these, 

 about one hundred and thirty are full-blood Merinoes, which I shall turn 

 into a pasture with two of the best bucks I can find, on 20th of October. 

 On the 25th of the same month I shall put half of my grade ewes to 

 buck, and on the 1st of November the ba?lance. For six weeks only will 

 the bucks be allowed to run Avith the ewes ; I never wish to see a lamb 

 come in one of my flocks later than the 15th of May. I have proved to 

 my own satisfaction, that a lamb dropped on 1st of April, when the grass 

 is young and fresh and the days comparatively cool, will be larger and 

 better formed the day it is three months old, than will a lamb dropped on 

 the 1st of July, when the grass is apt to be coarse and dry, and the days 

 scorching hot, when it is six months old ; and the former will turn out the 

 best sheep in every respect. Many persons, anxious to increase the num- 

 ber of their flooks, may be loath to believe all this, but let them try both 

 or all systems. The custom of allowing bucks to run with the ewes the 

 year round, and having lambs come twice a year, or during every month 

 in the year, I cannot but believe ruinous. It would worry me more to 

 see a buck among my ewes in July, August, or September, or in Febru- 

 ary, March, or April, than a wolf: the latter might kill half a dozen, 

 and there end ; the former Avould cost me more real loss in the long ruu. 



I am induced to give this statement in relation to my sy.stem because! 

 am continually receiving letters from persons just starting in the sheep 

 business, making inquiries on the subject. I do not say tliat I am right; 

 t ask no one to follow my general plan of management. I shall change it 

 the moment I hear of any one who has had better success than has 

 befallen me, but not until then. 



In the Texas almanac for 1859, I see that Thos, Decrow, Esq., after an 



