110 ON THE CHEVIOT BREED OF SHEEP. 



be hoped that these prosperous tunes will soon return, and the 

 agricultural interest revive and prosper ; should it not, ruination 

 both to landlord and tenant will probably be the result. It is 

 very improbable that much waste land in this country will be 

 reclauned, or new farm homesteads built or extended beyond what 

 is absolutely necessary, neither party having either the means or 

 any encouragement to do so. The agricultural interest ha^dng 

 become so depressed, and little sign of improvement, the value 

 of land must certainly come down in price, to the great loss of 

 tlie landlord. 



ON THE CHEVIOT BREED OF SHEEP. 



By David Archibald, Duddingston, South Queensferry. 



[Premium — Ten Sovereigns.'] 



To many it may appear unfortmiate that the Highland and 

 Agricultural Society should have selected the Cheviot breed of 

 sheep as one of their essay subjects in a year when the times are 

 so depressed. 



The season 1879, it is almost needless to say, will be re- 

 membered as one of the worst of the century. Eegardmg the 

 springs of 1816, 1837, 1838, and 1860, there are accounts of 

 great losses ; and the year through which we have just passed 

 will always be classed as nearly, if not altogether, equal in 

 severity to any of these. Into any minute account of this year's 

 storms it is, of course, not permissible to enter ; but, at the 

 same time, it is certainly worthy of being put upon record that, 

 throughout the winter and spring of 1878-79, hand-feeding 

 was in many places carried on by Cheviot owners for as many 

 as twenty weeks, and that in the North the loss of a sum equal 

 to two — and, in some cases, to three — rents of the farm will not 

 l)e uncommon. 



The development of the type of sheep named after the Border 

 hills is a matter of less uncertainty than the origin of the breed. 

 A consultation of most reliable authorities leads, however, to 

 the belief that there were in the early days of pastoral farming a 

 good many native breeds in different parts of Scotland, which 

 were prevented from crossing, and so Ijecoming one common 

 variety, by the isolation in which they were then, of necessity, 

 kept. 



From one of these stocks. Cheviots are, it is safe to infer. 



