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2 r I p r \ \O||ls// Official Organ of the Patrons of Husbandry. From the Homeward Star.] SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS. Eagle Pass, Texas. I desired to comply with your several requests to write for The Star, some time ago, but could not well do so while constantly in the saddle. Now, after a ride of some two thousand miles, over different parts of West Texas, and into the heart of the sheep-raising country, I will try and give you a few notes. I have met and talked with sheep rais ers from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, California, New Mexico, and nearly all the Eastern States and Canadas. With the exception of one or two from Cali fornia (and you know Californians are terrible braggarts) they all agree that Texas, west of the Nueces river, is un excelled by any country in the world as a wool producing territory. Some place the boundry of this favored re gion as far east as the San Antonia riv er, and a few even the Colorado. My own observation convinces me that sheep do as well and produce as much wool in the stretch of country lying be tween the San Antonia and Nueces riv ers as in that between the I, ueces and the Rio Grande. I would prefer not to go east of the San Antonia river, though there are many localities over there where sheep do excellently. When we reach the Sabinal river, sixty miles west of San Antonia, we find our selves within the limits of the sheep producing country of Texas. On this stream is the well known ranch of Col onels James and Shean. They have from four to five thousand head of sheep, mostly graded up from the Mex ican ewe. They have seventy head of thoroughbred, imported merino bucks, valued at three thousand dollars. These flocks will shear four to five pounds of wool per year per head, which brings the highest price in San Antonia market. When we visited the ranch they were about trading one hun dred fine young bucks, of their own raising, to parties in Mexico, for ten Mexican ewes each, the Mexicans to pay all duties and costs. They shear once a year, and dip whenever the flocks seem to require it. Their facilities for dipping are very complete, consisting of a large iron boiler, to boil tobacco in, and a water tight tank. Mr. Shean has used some lime in connection with tobacco, but believes it to be injurious to the wool, unless the dipping is done soon after shearing. Their breed is the Spanish merino. There are several other flocks on this stream ; that of the Thompson brothers, a few miles above, being one of the best and lar gest ; but we had not time to visit each one. On the Blanco, four miles west, is the ranch of Peter Riner, a former Californian. He began with two hundred and fifty Mexican ewes and has now some six thousand head, counting the lambs. He also has fine imported bucks of Spanish merino. Last winter Messrs Riner and Thomp sons traded wethers to Mr. Mathews for a car load of bis imported merinos, getting $4 per head for wethers and al lowing S4O for the bucks per head. Mr. Riner sells off his sheep annually so as to limit his number of grown ones to four thousand head. What his reason is I hardly know,unless it is that he is one of those who does everything well that he puts his hand to, rather than do twice as much and only do it half. Last spring his wool brought twenty-seven cents per pound, and averaged about 4} lbs. to the head. Has made a for tune from a very small beginning, and is now putting a fence of thirty two miles (and the best fence in that country too) around a pasture, prepar atory to raising improved cattle. He has a good dipping tank, and only dips when the sheep seem to need it, using nothing, I believe, but tobacco. Fol lowing down the Blanco a few miles, we come to the ranch of Mr. Wish, and some ten miles west, on the Frio, that of David Broun. Both of these men have been very successful, and their flocks do not differ very much from those of others in the vicinity. All these parties seem to have given more care to the improvment of their flocks than the average sheep raiser of West Texas. On down the Frio are Crouch's, Campbell’s, and a number of other fine ranches, with two to ten thousand head each, some of them mak ing a specialty of raising fine bucks, and others somewhat careless as to improvement. A few miles west of Uvalde, on Nueces river, we stopped over night with Mr. Miller. From a very small beginning his flocks now number about six thousand well graded sheep, which afford him an income from wool amply sufficient to support Lis family handsomely, without using the increase of his flocks. Up the val- • ley thirty or forty miles is Mr. Lewis, ' an old settler, who has about twenty-five * hundred head. Fifteen miles further giggfiH up is Mr. Thorpe, a Calfornian, whom we found very intelligent and with an agreeable family. He has four thous and head of good Missouri sheep that are doing splendidly. His profits last year in wool and lambs were $5,000. He keeps his stock in three flocks, and is grading up with merino and South down ; breeds once a year and shears once a year ; whenever a sheep be comes lame or otherwise injured he is trea+ed at once, and the flocks all look well. Some forty or fifty miles west are the Morris brothers, English gen tlemen of fortune, from Australia. They are located on the Pilo Pinto, in the midst of one of the finest ranges in the State. They were reared in the business, and know it from a to z. They have about ten thousand head in this State ; some of them very fine, im ported from England at much cost. The only lot of genuine Shropshire down I know of in Texas are on this ranch. They keep an overseer at a good salary, a fine team, buggy, dogs and guns, and, I am told, feel satisfied if they come out even at the end of the year. They shear once a year and breed the same, and use the tobacco dip. Not being acclimated, a number of their fine sheep have died, entailing a heavy loss in that line. Twenty-five miles west, at St. Phili pe, on the Rio Grande, is the present frontier sheep ranch on that part of the border; kept by Jones Grimes. The range here is so good that his wethers get too fat in warm weather. He has some three thousand head, and has adopted the plan of shearing twice a year, and breeds twice in fourteen months. The advantages claimed in favor of shearing twice a year are that the sheep keep healthier, and that they produce enough more wool to pay for the extra shearing and difference in price. The semi-yearly clip being of shorter staple does not bring quite so much per pound as the annual clip. Down the Rio Grande is Mr. J. Towne, with three to four thousand sheep, graded from Mexicans ; and fif teen miles above Eagle Pass we find Messrs. Lytle, Spencer, Oliphant and Mitchell, with some eight thousand head, some pure Mexican ewes and some fine graded merinos. They im ported forty Vermont bucks this fall. They pay two cents each for shearing Mexican sheep, and three for merinos. One man will shear from fifty to sixty mexicans a day, and a few shear as many as one hundred. They, as well as all others in this region, send their wool to San Antonia ; freightage half a cent a pound. These gentlemen will soon stand among the leading sheep raisers of this country. Between Eagle Pass and Uvalde is Mr. Bell, with a couple thousand head, fair graded sheep ; Mr. Finley, who is just getting a good start, and who paid S4O dollars each for several head of bucks this fall; the Negley brothers, young Baltimoreans, with eight hun dred head of good Mexican ewes and sixteen head good bucks, and who have bright prospects if they will only stick to it a year of two, which they are bound to do, for they have the true grit; and Mr. Flowers with forty-five hundred head, whose flocks shear from four to five pounds—keeps the ewes pregnant all the time nature will allow it, and has a lambing time in Februa ry and March, June and July, and Sep tember and October. The Spring lambs do the best. He has heretofore used a dip of two pounds arsenic, eight cans concentrated lye and fifty pounds of tobacco ; but believes tobacco decoc tion, simple and pure, is all that is needed. He shears twice yearly, and, like the majority, puts dry powdered charcoal on cuts that the shears make in the sheep, to heal the wound and keep away the flies. Among other lots in this neighbor hood is that of Wood hull brothers, of about twenty five hundred head. In dipping they added to the tobacco liq uor about a pint of coal oil to every ten or twelve head, the only case of the kind I know of, and whether the benefit equals the cost is, as yet, un known. North of Eagle Pass are the flocks of Griffith Jones. I do not know the number of head, but I judge two or three thousand. Several years ago this gentleman lost twenty-six hundred ewes and lambs by the bursting of a water spout, and about the same time five hundred died of liver rot ; hence, he had reason to think that the stock was not very profitable, but he still sticks to it, and is making money. Eight miles east of Eagle Pass are Major Fielder with five hundred head of good Eastern sheep, and Mr. Simp son with five hundred as fine Mexican ewes as can be found. South of town, alongthe Rio Grande, are the flocks of Mr. Stone,, numbering fifteen to twenty thousand head. These parties all shear twice a year, are grading up with Spanish Merino, and breed twice in fourteen months, or some say three times in two years. I opine three times in two years is as rapid breeding as any of them reach for any number of consecutive years, though I have heard of them breeding twice a year for two successive vears. It is, I think, generally admitted, that if a person has tine sheep and wants to raise bucks, it is not l»est to breed more than once a year, but the value of the Mexican ewe depends on its half breed lambs, and not on its wool ; hence, it is pushed to its full capacity. Mexi can ewes shear from two to two and a half pounds per year per head, which is worth ten to fifteen cents per pound. Among other ranches visited was that of R. Martin, between Fort Ewell and Laredo. He has now twenty-three thousand head of average sheep. His flocks are less now than formerly, as he has lately made some favorable sales. A. short time ago he squared his books and had made thirty-five thousand dol dars clear, besides having on hand at that time twenty-eight thousand head of well improved sheep. Twenty-five hands are employed regularly, and at shear ing time fiftv more. His semi-annual clip amounts from forty to fifty thousand pounds, and is worth twenty five cents per pound. He owns twen ty five thousand acres of land here, and has a great deal of valuable property in stores, etc., in Laredo. He began busines a poor man, and is now worth from a quarter to a half million of dol lars. His fii-ftt flock of sheep number ed one thousand head, and the first year or two he lost his wool crop by reason of the war, and other causes. On this ranch they do not use the to bacco dip, but rub tar on the scab-af fected ones, which they say is an effec tive cure and cheaper than tobacco; for the s r -rew worm they use carsylic ointment. Don Anselmo Flores is the capable Superintendent, who knows as much about sheep as a man generally learns. It is positively asserted that he, in herding a flock, will know every sheep by its countenance, and not only that, but that he can tell, from the face or countenance of a lamb, to which ewe it belongs. I have heard this asserted several times, of different shepherds. It seems hard to believe, yet I am not prepared nor inclined to dispute it. Don Flores has an under boss to as sist him. The shepherds herd on foot, as all do, with one or two exceptions, I’ve met, where white shepherds used poniers. Mexican shepherds are al ways on foot. The superintendent and boss, on the ranch, have ponies, of which there are twenty to thirty on the place. Everything is furnished by the proprietor, who, in addition to his own clip, buys large quantities of wool from others, which is shipped direct to New York by water. Twenty-six miles from Fort Ewell, and thirty-five from Laredo, is the fa mous Callaghan ranch, which will be dwelt upon at greater length. Mr. Callaghan began wi'h a few hundred Mexican ewes in 1862. During the war they were scattered, with no one to care for them. After the strife was over, he gathered the remnant togeth er, and, in 1867, had seven hundred head of all sorts. There are now on the ranch sixty thousand head. The iIK crease, this year, was sixteen thousand lambs, and the annual expenses of the ranch are twenty to twenty-five thou sand dollars. The sheep are placed in groups of six flocks each, beside a small seventh flock, made up of goats (used for meat) and the lame and weakly sheep in the group. Each flock numbers two thou sand head, which has its shepherd. Each group has over it a boss, and two under bosses, on horseback. The un der-bosses must visit each of three flocks daily, and see the shepherds thereof personally- The boss manages everything in his group, sleeping at night with the goat and crippled flock, which is generally kept in a brush pen at night. The other flocks have no pens, and the shepherds stay with them day and night. A manager (Mex ican) has direct charge over all the groups, and gets $75 a month. He reports regularly to the superinten dent, and everything is systematized to the minutest details. Toward lambing time, the pregnant ewes are placed iji herds of four to six thousand head, and penned at night in brush pens. All that bear lambs are separated in the morning and placed to themselves, to the number of 300, and a shepherd takes charge of them. In ten or twelve days two of these lamb flocks are thrown to gether, making 600 ewes, with their lambs; in a week or two more, two of these flocks are thrown together, mak ing 1200 hundred ewes and 1200 lambs. Thus the lambs, in each of the large flocks, are of about the same age and condition, and, when weaning time conies, can be separated without trou ble. On this ranch, each ewe is supposed to bring a lamb each year. If a ewe loses her young soon after birth, or does not become pregnant in the fall, she is again put to the buck, and pro duces a fall lamb. Shearing is done twice a year. Begins in fall, about the middle of September, and lasts four to six weeks. This year it commenced September 20th, with thirty men. some of them stripped bare to the waist. The second day there were sixty shearers. Before daylight all was astir. At day break a cup of coffee was served, and immediately 150 tine young bucks were let into shearing pens. The shearers stood in readiness in a line, and, at a given signal from the superintendent, each man caught and tied a sheep, and thus continued until five to each man were tied and laid on the ground. Then the merry click, click, of the shears began, and will continue into No vember. Raw hide straps are used to tie with. These are attached to the workmen’s waists, so as to be convenient as soon as they take hold of the animal. While this is going ’on, others are preparing strings t > tie up the fleeces, bv scorch- ing the leaves of the Spanish dagger, and splitting them into strips ; others are twisting cord with a stick, out of pi epared estie, a sort of Mexican grass, that is stronger than seaweed rope, and is used to sew up the wool-sacks ; while others are cooking and carrying wa ter. The shearing is done on the floor of the pen or shed. The shearer begins at the tail, and the fleece, as it is cut off, falls upon the floor, where it is left; the shorn animal is turned loose and the shearer begins on another. Other workmen gather up the fleece and loose locks carefully, and carry them to a table, where two fleeces are folded nicely together, by two workmen, and securely tie the same with “dagger” strings. A frame is made from which to suspend the wool-sacks The fleeces are carried thence from the tie tables, and are pa-ked into the sacks. A heavy man gets into the sack, and tramps it down solidly. Each sack contains about three hundred pounds. They are weighed before leaving the ranch, and the weight marked on the sack with a stencil plate. Ten of these are placed on a huge Mexican ox-cart, and the long journey to Corpus Christi begins. There the entire clip is sold to a single firm. The freight is one cent per pound, and the wool brings twenty-five cents per pound in gold. In the shearing pens, boys run about among the shearers, like pages in a leg islative hall, with cans of sheep dip and turpentine, and little brushes. When ever one is cut, or has any wounds or sores, the brush is at once applied by the boys ; other boys keep the floor swept clean with brushes made of twigs. Near the water casks, sandstones of fine grain are placed on which to whet the shears. No tables are used, except for the tyers. The superintendent, with book and pencil in hand, goes about among the men, keeping an ac count with each one, and seeing to ev erything. If a sheep is turned loose poorly’ shorn, the man must catch it again, and finish the work satisfacto rily. This does not often occur. Two and a quarter cents are paid per head for shearing, and forty-five head per day, per man, is good average work. All the shearers are Mexicans. Clip averages four and a half pounds per year —two pounds in fall and two and a half in spring. The shed is made of forks set in the ground, with brush and grass thrown over for shade ; it is not rain-proof, and is large enough for sixty to eighty shearers. A half dozen sheep, called Cabrestos, are used for leading the flocks from pen to pen. These sheep are trained, when lambs, for leaders, and are never sold off a ranch. They cosU $5 per head in Mexico, and are very tractable. Through shearing time coffee is served at daybreak ; breakast, at 7 ; dinner, at 12 ; coffee at 3, and supper at evening. Seventy men are regularly employed, beside the shearers, and much extra help in lambing time. Shepherds get $lO per month for first three months, and sl2 afterward. For scours in the sheep, a spoonful of tar is given inter nally, and dipping is done only when the appearance of scab seems to neces sitate it. Two thousand sheep are dipped a day. A small quantity of carsylic ointment, or sheep dip, is added to the tobacco liquid. The liquor is used as strong as it can be made, and as hot as the animal can bear. Cost of tobacco, twenty cents per pound; cost of dip ping per head, including labor, four cents. Bucks arc put with ewes only at night. The imported Lucks are fed three half-pints of oats per day, each, and have a good pine lumber shed for bad weather. All imported Northern bucks die in two years. 20 per cent, are lost in transit from the North. (This surprising fatality is not com mon in the experience of all sheep dealers. Many have not lost over 20 per cent, all told, and many of the im portant bucks of Messrs. Shean, Broun, Riner, and others, seem to be as healthy as those raised in Texas) (Some give their bucks no extra feed ; others cook the prickly pear, or cactus, and feel it, which is said to equal corn ; but, I believe, all agree that imported bucks ought to be fed some grain, or other extra food, and housed from Northers.) The imported bucks on this ranch cost in New York and Ver mont, S4O to SIOO each, and a fine fellow “ Eclipse,” that died, cost $250. A stock of clothing, food and camp utensils, is kept on the ranch, but the men are not rationed as on most ranch es. The shepherds are furnished only meal and meat, and do their own cook ing. The corn is ground on the place by a five-horse power mill. For meat, one •_-oat per day is sufficient for six men. The milk used at the ranch is that of g'>ats, and is much richer than cows’ milk. (In the Uvalde country, the shepherds are also furnished sugar and coffee, generally.) The material for wool-sacks is bought by the piece, and the sacks made on the place. Not a woman lives <»n the ranch, nor ever has. Cheeks printed in blank, exclusively fur “Callaghan’s Ranch,” are given to men in payment of their services, and it is the only place I know us in Texas where any thing but the solid silver or gobi will be accepted by a Mexican. A'.l the euq ’.uVcs, except the u.urk, are Mexi- cans, and that language is used exclu sively. Col. Wm. R. Jones, formerly of Vir ginia, is superintendent, and Mr. How ard Dunn, of Lexington, Missouri, is clerk. The Colonel is a cultivated and polished gentleman, educated at West Point, and of large business experience. He is making a specialty of breeding fine bucks for the Texas and Mexican market, and can show several hundred good merinos, the result of fine blood and skillful breeding, which he offers at prices so that all can purchase. On his shelves we found the New York Herald, St. Louis Republican, Harper’s Weekly, and other leading papers, and volumes of the poets, and Sherman’s Memoirs lay upon the desk. An air of Virginia comfort and hospitality rests upon the office, and the weary traveler is refreshed in mind as well as body. Mr. Callaghan died about a year ago, comparatively a young man, and the entire management of the ranch has since devolved on Col. Jones. His suc cess is sufficient proof of his executive and administrative ability. The number of ewes that should be put to a buck, is a mooted point, and ranges from five to fifty/according to the individual’s notion. Ou Martin’s ranch five ewes to a buck is their present number ; on Callaghan’s, ten to fifteen. It is well known that, in the North, 100 is a common number. The time has come when it is almost necessary to own land. All, or nearly all, the large ranches have large bodies of it, and it is not safe for any one to come to this part of the State to en gage in sheep raising unless they are prepared to buy land. Very nearly, if not quite, all the streams and perma 7 nent water holes are already occupied. The common price is now $1 per acre. No money is used here except coin. The price of Mexican ewes, this side the Rio Grande, is now SI 50 and ris ing, and graded merinos $2 50 to §4 00 per head. A great many are engaging in the business and prices have been run up. The majority of men say there is bound to be a reaction, as the price of wool, this fall, will not warrant such high rates for sheep. The foot rot is unknown here. The only serious diseases I have known of are liver rot, although it is very un common, and scab. The latter does not seem to be so virulent as in the East, and is easily cured. The Spanish merino is the favorite breed all over West Texas, and the tobacco dip, pure and unadulterated, is believed to be as good as can be found. I find that the profits are not so great as some figure them on paper, yet, if a man has success, I believe it is better than cattle or horse breeding. To be eminently successful, the closest watch ing and utmost care are positively es sential. In the Rio Grande country no salt is given the flocks, as there are several plants and grasses having sa line properties, and much of the water is of the same nature. C. S. Brodbent. The Sceret of Success in Life. No man now standing on an emi nence of influence and power, and doing great work, has arrived at his position by going up an elevator. He took the stairway step by step. He climbed the rocks often with bleeding hands. He prepared him self by the work of climbing for the work he is doing. He never ac complished an inch of his elevation by standing at the foot of the stair way with his mouth open and long ing. There is no “royal road” to anything good—not even to wealth. Money that has not been paid for in life is not wealth. It goes as it comes. There is no element of permanence in it. The man who reaches his money in an elevator docs not know how to enjoy it; so it is not wealth to him, To get a high position without climbing to it, tr> win wealth without earning it, to do fine work without the dis cipline necessary to its perform ance, to be famous, or useful, or or namental, without preliminary cost, seems to be the universal desire of the young. The children would be gin where their fathers leave off. What exactly is the secret of true success in life ? It is to do, without flinching, and with utter faithful ness, the duty that stands next to one. When a man has mastered the duties around him, he is ready for those of a higher grade, and he takes naturally one step upward. When he has mastered the duties of the new grade, he goes on climbing. There arc no surprises to the man who arrives at eminence legitimate ly. It is entirely natural that he should be there, and he is as much at home there, and as little elated, as when he was working patiently at the foot of the stairs. There arc heights above him, and he remains humble and simple. Preachments are of little avail, perhaps; but when one comes into contact with so many men and wo men, who put aspiration instead of perspiration, and yearning for earn ing, and longing for labor, he is tempted to say, to them : “Stop looking up, and look around you ! Do the work that first comes to your hand, and do it well. Take no up- ward step till you come to it natu rally, and have won the power to n hold it. The top in this little j world is not so very high, and pa- J tient climbing will bring you to it ’ ere you are aware.” smaller industries. It is a great mistake with many of our people, in judging that to raise cotton, or corn, and wheat, and to turn out wares and goods from the loom, the forge and the foundry, is all we can do here in Georgia. Yet a great deal more of this kind of thing should be done. As much as he loves his dinner, the writer almost loses his appetite, daily, walking through the freight depot of the Western and Atlantic railroad, and seeing piles and nests of tubs, pails, rolling pins, wash boards, potato mash ers, clothes pins, plows, churns, horse buckets, sugar boxes, knife boxes, lemon squeezers, hatchet, ax and hoe handles, beef-steak mallets, rocking horses, shoe-pegs, shoes, etc. But there are other agricultural pro ducts, as well as manufactured articles of utility, it would pay us to turn our attention to. Take for instance, our importation of silk goods, which now amount yearly to thirty millions. During the war, the writer examined some beautiful silk which was manufac tured in Troup county, by a young lady. Why should not its manufac ture be entered into, and it become an an important industry in Georgia? Teas have been cultivated successfully in the State ; perhaps the only trouble in making it profitable would be the high price of labor, compared with its cost in China. Why should not the cultivation of the castor bean, and the the manufacture of oil, pay ? The honey crop of California will soon prove more valuable than the sugar and molasses crop of Louisiana, Texas and Florida combined. Will it not remunerate some of our people to embark more in the business ? There are other and profitable in dustries, which our people might take hold of, which would diversify our ag agriculture and augment the wealth of Georgia. Cyclones. The observer at the Signal Service office in New York, says that the Septem ber cyclones followed the usual course. Cyclones never cross the Equator. Those on this Continent begin a little abode the Equator and follow a para bolic curve. That of last month be gan near the Bahamas, took at first a northwesterly course, entered the Gulf of Mexico, where it remained about tw r o days; and, then, proceeding in an easterly direction, followed the course of the gulf stream. The cyclones have two motions. One is a progressive one, whereby the area of low barometer moves forward. The other is a gyratory motion. The wind tends toward the center of the cy clone, where the barometer is at its low est. Its direction is not, however, straight, but curved. The gyratory motion in the Northern hemsphere is in a direction opposite to that of the hands of a dock. In the Southern hemisphere the motion is in the oppo site direction. On September 13, while the gale was at its height, the wind at Galveston moved with a velocity of fifty-six miles per hour. The barome eter stood at 29 deg. 10 min., both in the Gulf of Mexico and along the East ern coast of Florida. AlpaeaSheep. Ex-Governor Thomas, of Mary land, has recently imported, from Peru, a lot of Alpaca sheep. The fleece of this animal far surpasses that of our best breeds of sheep in the length and firmness of its fiber, and weighs about seven pounds for each shearing, and as it is much larger than our own sheep, and its flesh is said to be superior to mutton for food, as well as its capacity to pro duce the material for a beautiful ar ticle of clothing, it ;nay, in time, become of great value to the coun try. Their colors are glossy black, beautiful brown of various shades, very white and gray. They are heavy and deep in the chest, slim in the loins, and of handsomely curved and full-round hindquarters, with a long, swan-like neck, which they carry in a vertical direction, and which, with a well-formed head and remarkably beautiful eye, gives them a pleasing and imposing ap pearance. —The Covington Star says : Mr. F. P. Reynolds has made this year, with three plows, 27 bales of cotton, nearly four hundred bushels of corn, and 160 bushels of wheat, besides a large crop of peas. He made 150 bushels of peas from one bushel plan ted. Mr. Reynolds is one of the most energetic and industrious young far mers in Jour jeounty, and his example is worthy of emulation. If any one has beat him we would like to hear from it, for ten thousand such farmers , in this section would make it truly the garden spot of the ‘“Empire State.” —The Sparta Times says: There has not 1 been in our community for years a moral in stitution of so much potency as the Young i Men’s Christian Association. It has taken deep hold upon many heretofore indifferent to the claims of good morals ami religion upon them. W.- an- glad to see it, and we hope to see its influence widen ami deepen every dav