El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-12-13
Live Stock.
SHEEP RAISING INDUSTRY

]
Can Be Conducted on Farms
and Ranches.
A farmer can engage in form of
sheep husban6ry as an occupation in
cidental to the raising of grain ana
entirely different class OF
sheep business or wool grow
ing than another man who is engaged
in the same general occupation. It Is
simple matter, but it Is not generally
understood. Few people give much
thought to the many varieties Of farm
ing or to the many varieties of stock
are alike to them, but the varieties are
rs many and IS widely different as are
the occupations of different people in q
city.
The first sheep the writer ever cav
we're on q public common in city.
The man who owned them was never
with them, but the sheep were always
there. He had the privilege of using
the commons and to all appearance
the sheep we're the same one year as
another. The owner simply grazed q
them home and fed them every night,
then as fast rs they fattened he sold
them and rs fast as he sold the fat
sheep he bought thin once. His
numbers were the same one month
with another and his business was
profitable and simple.
The next to come under observation
was farmer who was also in the
sheep business. During the most part
of the year his sheep consisted OF two
favorite bucks that had black faces.
Every fall the farmer drove in from
somewhere about 200 ewes. Every
spring the farmers ewes had some
thing like 200 lambs. just as soon as
it was possible to do so the lambs were
were gone the ewes were sfatteped
for market also. For about four
months in the year those bucks we're
all the sheep that were on the farm.
The writer has often been told that
near big city this Is the most profit
able form OF the sheep business.
The next to come under observation
were raised for the purpose of selling
them at high price to improve other
flocks. This is the aristocracy of sheep
raising, the flOcks are generally small
and the objects are improvement by
selection and profits from the excel
lence of the stock raised. Many people
in this business do well commercially
while some of them fail utterly in
making the slightest Improvement.
The next to come under observation
was Kansas feeding establishments.
The farmer bought sheep to feed on
cheap corn which he raised and he put
them up in darkened pens and stuffed
them all they could stand up to. never
letting them out except for delivery
he made bushels of money.
Another sheep enter prise to come
under observation was on immense
ranch. There lambs were sold every
year and only enough eve lambs were
kept back to replace the old ewes that
we're barren or died, or became fat
enough for market.
Here we have enumerated five dis
tinct branches of sheep raising. II the
purpose of this article was to weary
people with the subject of sheep rails
ing, further details and more different
methods could be explained and enum-
Grated. The sheep business thrives in
many sections under many different
conditions and it stands today as the
business above all others that cat
be proftably conducted in some
shape or other wherever grass grows
or water runs. The grand possibilities
OF sheep raising in this country are not
even thought of, and yet today, if sheep
were raised in the United States assthey
are raised in Great Britain, this
country would own three hundred mil
lions OI Sneep.-Excnange.
An A Albuquerque dispatch says: Pratt
Bros. & Hitson today unloRded 418
head of cattle here to be fed for the
market. The cattle were brought from
Ell PasO and are said to be fine herd
of native cattle.-Dallss News
w. G. Barnes, chairman of the Ari-
z )na live stock sanitary board, has pur-
chased sanitary board, has purchased
several ranches in the Maxwell grant
in New'MexicO and will move his cat
tie there in the near future from his
properties near HolbroOk.
Star.
John Scharbauer, who Ia one of the
wealthiest cattlemen in West Texas,
was a. Barstow this week making pre-
par ations to bring in from 500. to 800
head OF his fine Hereford cattle to win
ter them on alfalfa. He Gays that the
eyes of the stOckmen are upon this val
ley and are waiting to see what we are
going to do. II we will raise alfalfa
then large herds of steers will be fed
here every winter, as is will be money
in the stockmen's pocket to make fat
cattle instead of feeders.-Exchange.