ON THE AGllICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 53 



54,846 

 74,448 

 80,411 

 69,609 

 12,303. 



It will thus be seen that there has been a slight increase during 

 the past twenty years, though the number returned this year is 

 less than in 1874 by nearly 11,000. A very small proportion — 

 only about one-fifth — of the flock kept is for breeding purposes. 

 The number of lambs annually raised in the county seldom 

 exceeds 14,000 or 15,000, and thus a great many sheep must 

 be bought in. The prevailing custom is to buy in half or three- 

 parts bred hoggs, chiefly from the St Boswells and Melrose 

 districts and Perthshire, about the end of autumn, ' and feed 

 them on turnips, and cake or turnips and grain during the 

 winter, selling them off in spring. The prices paid for these 

 hoggs vary so much tliat it would be difiicult to state an average 

 figure. Often as much as 50s. a-head, and sometimes more, is 

 obtained in the spring market. The majority of the farmers 

 feed off; but a few obey the dictates of the markets, and sell lean, 

 or retain and fatten, according to whichever system is likely to 

 suit the demand best. With a good many farmers the plan of 

 feeding is to drive the turnips on to the lea fields, and there cut 

 them and give them to the hoggs in troughs or on the land. A 

 great breadth, however, of turnips is eaten off the root ; and, 

 except in an unusually wet season, this can be done most satis- 

 factorily. The turnips to be eaten off by sheep are invariably 

 " stripped," generally one-half and sometimes two-thirds being 

 pulled for the cattle ; and thus a greater breadth of land gets the 

 benefit of the sheep's manure. When any portion of the turnip 

 break happens to be manured with artificial manure only, farmers 

 are careful to eat off the turnips on this portion by sheep, so that 

 the want of the more substantial farm-yard manure may be com- 

 pensated for by the droppings of the sheep. The advantages 

 accruing to land by the feeding of sheep upon it, especially when 

 they are fed on swedes, are well known to be very important ; 

 and when the fattening of sheep is usually so remunerative a 

 speculation, we tliink it would be highly profitable for the farmers 

 of Fife to keep a much larger number of sheep than they do. 

 Of course, while so little land is left under grass, the number 

 must necessarily be limited ; but were two years' grass taken in- 

 stead of one, four or five times the present number might be kept 

 with great advantage. The want of fences is also much against 

 the successful rearing and feeding of sheep ; but this, we doubt 

 not,is a drawback that ere long will be entirely swept away. By far 



