694 



SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



When it is found and the owners notified a day is designated, and early 

 in the morning, before daybreak, men and boys on horseback, armed 

 with long whips and accompanied by dogs, ride to the bedding place 

 and surround the sleeping and unsuspecting flock. As the ring of 

 horsemen closes in upon them the sheep are awakened. Some try to 

 escape, but these are run down; the flock is collected and driven in to 

 a place already prepared, where each man's sheep, bearing the earmark 

 or other mark of the owner, are picked out. The lambs are given the 

 mark of their mothers. Lambs without mothers are divided pro rata 

 among aU the owners. The best and most vigorous ram lambs are set 

 apart as sires; all others are castrated. When the marking, castrating, 

 and shearing are finished they are turned adrift, not again to be disturbed, 

 or indeed thought of, until shearing time again comes around. 



Within recent years many attempts have been made to improve upon 

 this system of sheep husbandry, but the results have not been gener- 

 ally favorable. In some cases inclosures have been made, some care 

 given them, and improvement made by the use of Merino rams, and the 

 sheep have graded up well to the Merino standard, but these cases are 

 not common. A case is cited: Mr. L. H. Cawthorn, of De Funiak 

 Springs, has a large flock of the piney woods sheep. He imported a 

 small flock of pure-bred Merinos for the purpose of raising rams to use 

 on his flock. The cross of these rams on his native ewes improved the 

 wool to such a degree that he received 3 to 4 cents a pound more for it 

 That improvements are possible and practicable on these sheep admits 

 of no doubt, but they must be made with caution and skill, and prefer- 

 ably with the Merino. Some attempts to cross with the Down breeds 

 or to raise the Downs pure have resulted in absolute failure. What 

 the future may develop no one can foresee, much less foretell, but it can 

 be assumed, from experience in other places the world over, that when 

 the proper conditions are known some will be found to take advantage 

 of them, and with these hardy, acclimated sheep as a foundation build 

 up a stock of wool-growing sheep inferior to none now known in the 

 Union. 



Slieep and toool in Florida, 1840 to 1S90. 



