ON THE CHEVIOT BIIEED OF SHEEP. 119 



his knowle(lj:;c of the j^Tound in tlic selection of sheltered places 

 fur tlie ewes. 



To one man the entire hirsel allotted is commonly thirty score, 

 this number bein^i^' reckoned to aflbrd him pretty constant work, 

 and an assistant ])('m<f ^^enerally allowed at this season when a 

 larger stock is under his care, or t!veu sometimes when the land 

 is of such a nature that it is dillicult to attend to the thirty 

 score. AVhere the tups have been taken off the hill on the 1st 

 of January, lambing is brou^'ht to a close about the old term day, 

 the 2Gth of May; but, of course, if the tupping lias been allowed 

 to continue ten days longer than usual, it is not till the end of 

 the first week in June that the shepherd gets through this part 

 of his work. 



Of tup eild sheep the average is as a rule one to the score. 

 Twin lambs, unless for " beating up the deaths," are no advan- 

 tage, except where the farmer has parks to keep them till about 

 the end of June, after which they will do well on the hill. The 

 ability to work in this way with twins is, of course, another 

 benefit obtained from enclosing ground. 



Within nine or ten days after lambing is over the castration 

 of tlie lambs is begun, and the selection of those that are to be 

 kept as tups is then made. About this operation of castration 

 there is a pretty widespread belief that it is only some sheplierds 

 having a special aptitude for the work who are likely to make a 

 "lucky cutting," and if all that was wanted to support this 

 theory was the fact that occasionally serious loss results from 

 the handling of the lambs at this time, it would be sufticiently 

 well borne out. The cause of any exceptional fatality is, liow- 

 ever, as a rule, to be found not in the castration itself, but in the 

 manner in whicli the lambs are brought together, as in this 

 matter there is sometimes a little thoughtlessness where tlie 

 greatest care should be taken. This being the first occasion of 

 the lambs being gathered together, the folding is a new experi- 

 ence to them, and, what between tlie loss of their mothers and 

 the noise that often prevails, it is a very easy thing to throw 

 the still delicate little animals into a state of heat and excite- 

 ment that altogether unfits them for undergoing any operation. 

 The best preventive against fatal results is accordingly to secure 

 that the folding shall be done as quietly and carefully as 

 possible, and that in the subsequent handling of the lambs all 

 unnecessary roughness be avoided. Sometimes, no doul)t, even 

 when the treatment of the lambs lias been all that could be 

 wished, a large loss has been sustained, but when the precautions 

 in question are tak(>n, the death-rate is usually a good deal less 

 than it would otherwise be. The system of operating that is 

 almost everywhere adopted is still the old fashioned one of the 

 shepherd working upon the lamb with his teeth, taking care at 



