Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-01-12
Sheen Husbaudry.

h"h'-sopTUyVctU hepUOHcuN.
Sheep Hnsbandry.
Unquestionably Colorado is one OF
the best countries in the world for
sheep. Rank grasses sheep do not like
wet countries are not the best for
them. Colorado has an abundance OF
short, nutricious heritage; wet days
are few and far between the winters
are dry and sometimes, for at most but
sixty days, tolerably cold. Together
these are the conditions most favor
able for sheep husbandry. Foot dis
eases are unknown among the native
sheep. Scab is the only disease that
the shepherd has to guard against.
Range is abundant and only water is
scarce, and this can be obtained by
digging at depths along the beds of
dry water courses ut from twenty to
forty feet, and on the higher mesas, at
an average of one hundred feet, by
wind, horse power, or by hand, it can
easily be lifted to the surface, and
from the troughs the sheep can drink.
Dainty drinkers they are, and this
method of watering is that which they
prefer.
1t is only for the general govern
ment to amend the presumption and
homestead laws so that actual settlers
can get an amount of our dry grazing
grounds, impossible of irrigation and
of which we have 45,000,000 acres,
equal in value to the 100 acres given
to the settlers of the rich agricultural
lands of the Missouri and Mississippi
valleys which would be about fifteen
acres here to one there, to make them
available for settlement and source
of revenue to the general government
and to the state. This should be done
and our representatives in congress
should labor to that end. This done
and the rich cattle and sheep kings
would not be the only ones who are
benefited by the present method of
free pasturage. Permanent homes
would besestablished all over the vast
grazing grounds of our state. Schools
and churches would flourish where
to-day the antelope, the jack-rabit and
the coyote roam undisturbed by the
presence of men.
In 1871 there was about 400, 900 sheep
in the territory in 1878, 100000. The
assessors returns gave 779, 226 in 1879 ;
in 1880, 7S2 $50, and in 1881 only 634-
542; i'm 1882, 7O6Ois. The falling off
in the returns of 1881 was occasioned
by the dry seasons of 1879 and 1880.
Few lambs were raised in 1880, and the
influx of sheep from California and
New Mexico was checked, but the fall
and winter of 1881 revived the bust
ness and the increase of 1882 is to be
credited to better pasturage and q re-
Yiyal in the business.
Although the fiockmastor knows
much better than the cattleman the
number of his flock, yst he abstains
from making full return to the as
SCISSOR; he only follows the fashion of
the day to lie about his wealth. To
put the number of the sheep in the
state at a million and quarter is not
too high; worth 1928 per head or a
total of 81, S00,0 600, and to quote the
yield of wool at seven millions of
pounds would be under the mark. And
to base calculation upon that data
would not be far wrong, and at the
average price of wool, quoted in our
table in another column, shows the
wool clip alone TO be worth about ST.
$3.50, 900. Then there was slaughtered
in the Denver market alone in 1882,
1000 sheep. From other parts of the
state ne could obtain no reliable data,
and can only assume the total num-
Der slaughtered in the state ut $4,000.
+ The average price in the Denver
market for the past year has been
$3.50 per head for mutton, making a
total receipt of Sl72,5O0 for mutton
sheep. Sales outside the state will
swell the total to at least $500 900; adj
ded to the wool clip makes grand
total of over million and half of
dollars added to the bank accounts of
the fiockmasters and TO the wealth Of
the state.
The increase of the flocks in lambs
and the growth of young sheep,
makes the wool clip a clear profit TO
the sheep husbandman, or net profit
on the assumed value of the sheep of
AZ per cent. We know this will be
said to be too high rate of gain,
but we have known instances where
il has been exceeded. An old rule of
sheep husbandry in the Eastern states
was to let sheep to double in three
years or 80 per cent. Another rule
was to let them for term of five
years, at half the wool and half the in
crease, or an hundred ewes shearing
six pounds Of wool would return to
the leasor 300 pounds of wool, worth
SIS, and an averrge of forty lambs,
worth, say $50, or Sl25 rental per an
mum for sheep worth say $3.50, or 80
per cent, on the investment to the
owner. At the end of five years the
number Of old sheep living were re-
turned 10 the leasor.
Better than this can be done in Colr
orado 10y men who understand theie
business, and who will take the same
care of their flocks as is taken in New
England, New York orOhio. The draw
backs here are that flocks are too large
and owners do not provide sufficient
hay for winter feeding, nor sufficient
suitable barns, sheds or corrals, for
their sheep. But we are glad TO say
there is q vast improvement III all
these matters since 1873, and the day
is not far distant when the sheep
business in Colorado will he the most
profitable of any other In the state. n
Colorado Fhrmer.