46 ON THE AGRICULTURE OF 



Clipping commences about the middle of June, and is con- 

 tinued till about the hrst week in Julv, when the milk ewes have 

 their fleeces taken off. The average weight of clip in 1880 is five 

 fleeces to the stone of 24 lbs., last year (1879) it was 5 J fleeces; 

 but smearing and dipping have so often been employed alter- 

 nately, that it is impossible to give a correct average over a period 

 of years. Of course sheep after smearing give a much heavier 

 clip than they give after dipping, but it is proved to be clieaper 

 to dip, because the cost in time and labour smearing, and the 

 lower price of laid wool, more than counterbalances the sum 

 realised for the larger return of wool. The price of white wool 

 at the clipping season in 1879 was lis., this season (1880) it 

 was 14s. per stone of 24 lbs. 



In 1879, the price realised for three-year-old wethers was 

 about 34s. a-head, in 1880, it was 31s. a-head. Average-sized 

 ewes draw from £18 to £20 for the score of twenty-one. In former 

 years it was customary to winter hoggs on the mainland, but for 

 the past seventeen years they have invariably been wintered in 

 the south end of the island, and in Shiskan. The period of 

 wintering is from the middle of October till the end of March, 

 and the price charged per head for the season is from 5s. to 6s. 

 The reasons for wintering on the low lands which hold good as 

 regards Bute, apply with equal force in the case of Arran. It is 

 a remarkable fact that both in the north of Bute and the north 

 of Arran, where the formation is granite or slate rock and the 

 subsoil clay, from 10 to 15 per cent, of the hoggs die of hraxy 

 before they are taken off the hills ; whereas on the south end of 

 these islands, where the subsoil is over sandstone and whinstone 

 rock, such a thing as death by this disease is comparatively 

 unknown. 



The purely sheep-farms up the glens of Shiskan and Scorrodale 

 (which run respectively from Brodick to Shiskan, and from Lam- 

 lash to Lagg), have each a small patch of fine arable land around 

 the steadings. Many of the farm steadings are very commodious 

 and comfortable, new houses having been built within the last 

 twenty-five years on most of the farms, generally at the tenant's 

 expense. These plots are wrought on a regular rotation of crops. 

 The best sheep-farm, though not by any means the largest in the 

 island, is universally admitted to be Glen Scorrodale, between 

 Glenkill and Glenree, on the road from Lamlash to Lagg, on 

 which great improvements have been made by draining the 

 moorland with sheep-drains, and in selecting choice rams, thereby 

 greatly promoting the quality and condition of the hill stocks. 



Married shepherds are usually employed on sheep-farms, and 

 their wages at present average about 15s. 6d. per week, with free 

 house, an allowance of fuel, grazing for one or two cows, and 

 land to plant potatoes. The flocks on the mixed arable and 



