78 ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. 



of ewes, the intention being to select from the progeny thus 

 raised tups for future use. During the winter the younger 

 sheep are placed on the best gromid on the farm, and from each 

 " hirsel " weakly animals are drawn together and kept on green 

 land, or hand-fed with hay and oats if necessary. If the winter 

 is " open " and the pasture good, none except specially weak 

 sheep require hand-feeding ; but, if the winter is severe, the 

 younger " liirsels " get a Httle hay or a sHght daily feed of 

 turnips, if these are raised on the farm. Hand-feeding is a 

 bad custom in the case of hill sheep, and therefore it is resorted 

 to only in cases of real necessity ; when, for instance, as in last 

 winter (1878-79), the anunals would not survive without it. 

 The ewe and wether hoggs are wintered separately, — the former 

 on grass as much as possible, getting a month or more of yellow 

 turnips in spring. The wether hoggs are wintered largely on 

 turnips. The hoggs are usually away at wintering about six 

 months, and thereby entail an outlay, including herdmg and 

 conveyance, of from 8s. to 10s. each, the average being about 

 9s. The cotton grass, or mossing, is pretty well forward m 

 ordinary seasons by the end of March ; and when the hoggs re- 

 turn, about the first week of April, they are dipped and sent on 

 to the cotton grass, which maintains them till the deer hair and 

 other plants come up early in May. Lambmg commences about 

 the 20th of April, and for more than a month the care of the 

 yoiuig stock is a subject of much anxiety to all on the farm. 

 In May the lambs are branded and tarred with the farm and 

 " hirsel " marks, each " hirsel " having a different mark or 

 number ; while, at the same time, the male lambs are castrated. 

 The twelve months are now at an end, and the supposed tenant 

 is left witli as near as might be the same number and classes of 

 stock as when he was supposed to have entered the farm. 



There are some de^dations from the system illustrated by the 

 preceding hypothetical case. Tliere are not many of the Sutlier- 

 land farms entirely self-supporting, or that can maintain as 

 many ewes as will provide them with a sufficient number of 

 wethers to graze their wether land. Most of the tenants there- 

 fore have to l3uy wether lambs and hoggs, and these they usually 

 obtain either from other farmers in Sutherland, who keep only 

 or mainly breeding stocks, or from other counties in the north. 

 Smearing is not so general as it was at one time, a good many 

 having abandoned it in consequence of tlie heavy outlay it 

 entails. Now, nearly all the sheep, especially ewes, on the 

 lower lymg farms are kept white. Some difference of opinion 

 exists as to the rearing and selection of tups. Latterly, a good 

 deal of southern blood has been introduced through tups, and 

 some contend that this has exercised a softening influence on 

 the Sutherland Clieviots, and that they are, therefore, not so 



