The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-01-22
SHEEP-RAISING IN TEXAS.
Dipping Sheep According to Law-The
Relative Profits of Different Breeds
Identifying Lost Sheep.

Identifying Lost Sheep.
We now have our sheep in as good
shape for the coming Winter as we
know how 70 treat them. The laSt
dipping until Spring returns has
been given them.
Dipping is laborious and in other
respects unpleasant task. 1t is as much
part of the routine of a shepherds
duties as shearing, with the difference
that ITS comes oftener. 1t is prevent
i've as well as cure of disease known
as scab. Scab is as contagious among
sheep as smallpox in the human fam
lily. 1t is as bad as the itch in the dis
trict school. In fact it belongs to the
itch family. Sheep men are required
by law to dip their sheep. The obliga-
ton OF the law is observed with about
the same reverence as are your licenses,
prohibition and local option laws at the
North
What dipping is done is from a
motive of self-interest on the part of
the owner. The shiftless and the lazy
will not attend to their tlocks in their
own interest, and consequently are not
expected to have greater interest in a
statute of Texas than they have in their
own bread and butter. The parasite is
allowed to burrow in the cuticle of the
poor sleeps back. The victim is con-
stantly seeking relief by rubbing against
all the mesquit bushes he can find,
scratching out wool at each rub, until,
when shearing time comes, the thrift
less owner looks first at the sheep and
then at the mesquit, seriously ponder
ing which has the most wool, and which
would give the best results in shearing,
the sheep or the bushes.
The old school of sheepmen baptise
the animal in a decoction of tobacco,
but the new school use some of the
combinations of carbolic acid or sui
phur. The operation is to seize the
animal and douse him entirely in the
prepared bath, save his head, and then
let him stand for moment on a plank
where drainage of his fleece will run
back into the vat.
1t is simple enough operation as
applied to one animal, but when re-
peated thousand or more times it be-
comes as monotonous as washing
dishes. l am always glad when dip
ping" is over.
Abilene, Taylor county, located on
the Texas Pacific. is our market for our
wool. Indeed, the town has become
quite wool center. The sheep busi-
ness is now suffering as much from low
prices as wheat culture. Wool has
been sold as low as 9 cents per pound.
Please contemplate the fact of pound
of wool being worth trihe less than a
pound of cotton. Under such circum-
stances nothing bnt force of habit would
cause a manufacturer to mix cotton in
his woolen goods.
Such prices can not be due to either
but lies somewhere between overpro-
duction and underconsumption.
There is, however, a great difference
in the quality of wool. That from the
Mexican sheep is straight and hairy.
From long haphazard breeding and
pot-lcuk care, the animals have a ten
dency to become goat-like in habit of
life and character of fleece. The wool
from Merino, or Merino grade, is
kinky, but silk-like in texture The diff
ference in the profit of the two breeds
is very marked. AS marked and ap-
parent as is the difference, one just en-
gaglng In the buslnesS-particular if
he is a ''tender-foot"-i quite as apt to
take the wrong course as the right one,
usually a little more so. The money
that will buy 1000 Merinos will buy
$500 Mexican sheep.
One of the most common mistakes a
novice makes in about every thing is
q, TO Il
thing to him, at the expense of quality.
To him a sheep is a sheep, and the
greatest number of noses that can be
had for given amount of money is the
best bargain.
The Merinos require a little more
care that the MeXicans. 1t lies more
in the direction of vigilance and thought
fuiness than in any money expense.
he difference in the amount and value
of the wool is about IS per cent in ia
vor of the Merino, and the difference
in the increase of the flock about as
much more, making a total advantage
on the side of the Merino of about $50
per cent.
The general appearance and general
culture of the average sheep-herder do
not possess many attractions to people
of refined society. 1t is not best to
have too great contempt for the poor
fellow. There are few things that
have come within the lines of his re-
stricted life that he knows just little
better than anybody else. His exper-
lence has al been in sheep society.
These he has mingled with day in and
day out for years, and he knows them
all, their habits and individual pecu-
Harities to fraction. To casual OBJ
server thousand sheep have no more
individuality than thousand peas or
flies. Not so with the expert sheep
herder.
Politicians and drummers having the
power to recall names and faces to
high degree are sometimes spoken of as
prodigies. doubt if there are any in
these professions whose memory can
command more of their constituency
than can the sheep-herder of his.
If by accident one of his flock shall
become mixed with another of thous-
and in number, he can 60 among them
and identify the one strayed from the
fold with unerring certainty. He iden-
titles mainly by the expression of the
face. Mexican herdsmen are particu-
larly expert in this. When on a drive,
he knows exactly what sheep will be in
the lead and what will be on the right
of the trail and on the left and in the
rear. They seem to have idiosyncra-
cies of character like ourselves. There
are the bold and the timid, the con-
.rary and the obedient, the proyident
and theimproyident and others, if there
is chance for an accident, are quite
certain to fall foul of the opportunity.
Just now good peanut stand on
cash basis is Of more profit than sheep
ranch; but there is process of the sur
vival of the fittest going on. Many
are going out of the business voluntari-
ly; and others by the refrigerator pro-
cess, and other signs are in the air in
dicating that the present dark lane will
some day take turn.-Teras Cor. Gin
cinnati Enquirer.
The author of ''Do They Miss Me at
Home?' is Mrs. Caroline a. Mason,
Of Fitchburg, Mass She is sixty-one