244 Sotng Circumstances relative to Merino Sheep. 



with his family ; and it is remarkable, that the families of 

 these shepherds reside entirely in Leon. 



The shepherds who came with his majesty's flock were 

 questioned on the subject of giving salt to their sheep : they 

 declared that this- is only done in the hottest season of the 

 year, when the sheep are on the mountains; that in Sep- 

 tember it is left off; and that they dare not give salt to ewes 

 forward with lamb, being of opinion that it causes abortion. 

 It is scarcely credible, though it appears on the best au- 

 thority to be true, that under the operation of the laws of 

 theMesla, which confide the eare of the sheep to the ma- 

 nagement of their shepherds, without admitting any inter- 

 ference on Ifa put of the proprietor, no profit of the flock 

 come.'vto the hands of the owner, except what is derived from, 

 the wool y the carcases of the culled sheep are consumed by 

 the shepherds * r and it does not appear that any account is 

 rendered by them* to their employers, of the value of the 

 skins, the tallow, &c. t the profit derived by a proprietor 

 ircm a flock, is estimated on an average at about one shil- 

 ling a head, and the produce of a capital vested in a flock is 

 said to fluctuate between live and ten- per cent* 



The sheep are always low kept. It is the business of each 

 Mayoral to increase his flock to as large a number as the 

 land allotted to it can possibly maintain : when it has ar- 

 rived at that pitch, all further increase is useless, as there is 

 no sale for these sheep, unless some neighbouring flock has 

 been reduced by mortality below its proper number : the 

 most of the lambs arc therefore every year killed as soon as- 

 they are yeaned, and each of those preserved is made to suck 

 two or three ewes ; the shepherds say, that the wool of an 

 ewe that brings up her lamb without assistance is reduced 

 *n its value. 



At shearing time the shepherds, shearers, washers, and a 

 multitude of unnecessary attendants, are fed upon the flesh 

 of the culled sheep m 7 and it seems that the consumption oc- 



• The shepherds, on discovering the drift of the questions pur to them on 

 this head, said that in settling the wages ot the shearers and washers, at the 

 tscuiilcos, all wajicc is made for the mutton with which, they are- fed. 



casioned. 



