WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 895 



noliody engaged iu sheep-raising except for home use ; no floct over 50, and very few 

 that large ; the average not above 10. They do well here ; rarely ever diseased ; live 

 on the wild grasses, with very little feed in the winter. No improved sheep ; all 

 scrubs. Some Cotswolds brought in did well until killed by wolves. No mutton 

 raised for market, but once or twice a year some one comes in and picks out the best 

 muttons and drives to Hot Springs. All the wool grown finds a market here at home. 

 J think with the natural advantages, together with the mildness of the climate, it 

 could be made profitable. 



A. B. Hudson, Hazen, Prairie County : 



My flock has varied from 10 to 75 in number in twenty years past. A few sheep 

 cared for here do tolerably well, but to run at large on the slushes in spring they 

 contract colds, have <i cough and running at the nose, and iu summer a fly deposits 

 a grub sometimes which works up into the head and, I suppose, kills them. I have 

 seen them die suddenly when fat, and found these worms or maggots iu the nose. 

 I now keep but few, none but young ones ; have a dry pasture ; they drink but little 

 water if dews are heavy ; shelter from the cold rains in spring ; watch young lambs 

 closely for one or two days. I kill one when needed at home, and sell the balance 

 at Hazen readily at 7 and 8 cents. Two years ago a St. Louis drummer took my 

 wool at home at 40 cents cash. I bred last year from a, graded buck. I expect to 

 get a good one soon; will have to send off. Others have tried larger flocks here 

 without success. 



A. P. Eobinson, Conway, Faulkner County: 



I began with a flock of about 40 Cotswold ewes and 3 rams of same breed. I kept 

 them within my fences and sheltered them in bad weather and at night. Hogs and 

 dogs so depredated on me that I saved only 5 lambs next spring. I have found it 

 impossible to guard them, and I have now about 20 ewes and 10 lambs only. Every 

 negro in this vicinity owns about four half-starved dogs; the more of them you 

 shoot or poison the more numerous they are. The second spring I did not save a lamb. 

 The rams, as well as some ewes, died of intestinal tubercle. A neighbor of mine 

 has had the same experience and has sold the few sheep that the dogs left him. An- 

 other neighbor, with more faith than I have, lost 15 out of a flock of 80 in one night. 

 I believe that if sheep-raising was pursued here as a business it would be a very 

 profitable industry, but now it is merely incidental to raising cotton. This is the 

 main product, and is rapidly ruining the country in this vicinity. I know no farms 

 here whose cotton did not cost them 2 cents per pound more than they received for 

 it. It is true that they were under mortgage to merchants and had to pay enormous 

 prices for their supplies, but even at cash prices they could save nothing. 



TEXAS. 



Sheep luisbandry in Texas, like all other industries of importance in 

 that great State, is on a characteristically immense scale. It is neces- 

 sary to form some idea of the area and extent of the State before one 

 can appreciate fully what it means to be engaged in a pastoral occupa- 

 tion in this portion of the great plains. The area of Texas is 266,780 

 square miles, or 170,099,200 acres. Its boundary lines measure over 

 4 000 miles. The Gulf of Mexico touches 500 miles of its southern 

 border. Texas lies mainly between 24° and 35° north latitude, and 

 between 17° and 30° longitude west from Washington, D. C, ranging 

 in altitude from sea level to 5,000 feet above. The country rises grad- 

 ually from the Gulf toward the northwest until it reaches an elevation of 



