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Sheep Raising
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Herding Sheep
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Something about Texas
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Land Grants
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The "Texas Fever"
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Why I Wanted To Go into Texas
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Hunting in Texas
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Father Goes To Spy Out the Land
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Our Plantation in Mississippi
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Father Comes Home
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The Bigness of Texas
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Where We Were Going
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What I Hoped To Do
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Cattle Driving
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How We Set Out
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A Laborious Journey
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Kickapoo Indians
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Father Comes to My Rescue
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The Arrival at Fort Towson
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Preparing for a Storm
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The Storm
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Two Kinds of "Northers"
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How Turkeys Kill Rattlesnakes
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Deer and Rattlesnakes
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Making a Corral of Wagons
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On the Trail Once More
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Crossing the Red River
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A Texas Sheep Ranch
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The Profits from Sheep Raising
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Father's Land Claim
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Spanish Measurements
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The Chaparral Cock
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Our First Night on the Trinity
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Standing Guard
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A Turkey Buzzard
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Plans for Building a House
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The Cook Shanty
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A Storm of Rain
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A Day of Discomfort
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Thinking of the Old Home
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Waiting for the Sun
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Too Much Water
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The Stream Rising
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Trying To Save the Stock
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The Animals Stampeded
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Saving Our Own Lives
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A Raging Torrent
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A Time of Disaster
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The Flood Subsiding
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A Jack Rabbit
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Repairing Damages
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Rounding Up the Live Stock
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The First Meal after the Flood
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Waiting for Father
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Recovering Our Goods
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Setting To Work in Good Earnest
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Sawing Out Lumber
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Laboring in the Saw Pit
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Wild Cattle
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A Disagreeable Intruder
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Odd Hunting
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A Supply of Fresh Meat
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"Jerking" Beef
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Searching for the Cattle Again
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Our New Home
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Planting, and Building Corrals
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Bar-O Ranch
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An Odd Cart
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The Visitors
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Zeba's Curiosity
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Possible Treachery
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Suspicious Behavior
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Gyp's Fight with a Cougar
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In a Dangerous Position
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Hunting Wild Hogs
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Treed by Peccaries
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Gyp's Obedience
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My Carelessness
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Vicious Little Animals
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Father Comes to the Rescue
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The Increase in My Flock
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Unrest of the Indians
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Texas Joins the Union
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War with Mexico
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Selling Wool
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Peace on the Trinity
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My Dream Fulfilled
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SHEEP RAISING
A sheep in order to thrive should have not less than
two acres of fairly good pasturage in which to roam.
Much less than that amount of land would provide a
sheep with food in case it was inclosed; but on the
range, where the flock is turned out to feed over a
large extent of country, the animals are inclined to
"bunch," as the herders call it; that is, to keep in
close company and wander here or there trampling down
the grass without eating it.
A sheep will yield about five pounds of wool each year,
and you can count that each animal in a herd will give
you one dollar's worth of its fleece annually. Of
course there is considerable expense, if one is obliged
to pay for shearing, or for dipping, in case that
disease known as "scab" comes among the flock. I have
known a sheep raiser to pay four cents a head to the
Mexican shepherds simply for dipping the flock; that
is to say, for giving each animal a bath in a certain
mixture in order to drive out distemper which, in
sheep, is like the mange that comes upon dogs.
Then it is pretty certain that during the year there
will be as many lambs born as there are sheep in the
flock, and if a sheep is worth five dollars, you can
reckon the lamb at three, for it will be a yearling in
twelve months, and a full-grown sheep a year later. So
one can say that every sheep worth five dollars will
bring in a profit of four dollars each year, less the
expense of keeping.
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