ON THE CHEVIOT BREED OF SHEEP. 123 



provided wintering, have taken to feeding stock of their own, 

 the cost has, within fifteen years, risen 100 per cent. 



Over tlie whole of the north it was in the past tlie custom to 

 smear all ages of the sheep ahout the end of October, but of 

 late, it has been the practice to leave the hogs unsmeared, and 

 the substitution of dipping for smearing, even with the older 

 sheep, has been growing in fa\'our. The objects that those who 

 still smear have in view are, — to keep in check scab, a disease 

 seldom met with in the soutli, but almost everywhere prevalent 

 in the north, and the protection of the shee]i from the weather. 



In Sutherland and Eoss the treatment of the Hock is, as has 

 been said, to a large extent the same as in the east borders, 

 •except that all ages of sheep arc allowed to go together. On 

 the west coast, however, the management more resembles that 

 of the west country. There, in a great many cases, the gimmers 

 are tupped, though, latterly, some farmers have ceased doing 

 this, and the ewes are kept till six-year old and sometimes older. 

 On some farms, too, the hoggs are wintered at home. The 

 wether lambs, however, are kept in both districts and sold as 

 three-year old wethers, and most of the ewe lambs are required 

 to maintain the stock. 



One of the greatest improvements that could be suggested 

 regarding Highland farming in general, is, certainly, that the 

 different holdings should be fenced, and this is said keeping 

 quite in view the size of the farms, and the cost and diffi- 

 culty that would necessarily attend the work. If the farms 

 were in this way cut off from one another, a farmer would be 

 able to put upon the place only what he considered a reasonable 

 stock, and he might consequently manage to winter more sheep 

 at home. As matters stand at present overstocking is almost 

 everywhere the practice, — one man keeping up an excessive 

 number, in order, as he says, to prevent his neighbour eating 

 him up ; and the blame being thus passed from one to another. 

 Another advantage secured would be a diminution in the num- 

 ber of stragglers, of which there is sometimes so large a pro- 

 portion, that in a flock of GOOO there may be 250 entirely lost, 

 not to speak of the troulile, and expense, and injury incurred in 

 the recovery of such sheep as are found. Till fencing is adopted 

 there can l)e no hope of clearing the Highlands of " scab " as 

 stragglers are at present the fruitful source of contamination. 

 Tenants of grazings adjoining deer-forests would also greatly 

 benefit by this improvement. On these places the sheep cause 

 both vexation and outlay for extra herding by their constant 

 endeavours to break through into the clear ground of the forest, 

 and once npon this land they are beyond the reach of their 

 owner till the shooting season is over, as sportsmen naturally 

 enough object to have the deer disturbed. If the farms were 



