BUTE AND ARRAX. 21 



sold to mercliantvS in Glasgow. The milk after churning is put into 

 a large vat, and a slow fire being put under, it is allowed to remain 

 there for two days; at the end of that time, being now formed into 

 a curd, it is taken out and put into a suspended bag, by which 

 means the whey is allowed to drip out of it. It is afterwards 

 taken down, and put under a cheese-press for a time, and is then 

 sent off to the Glasgow market. The price received for the curd 

 is from 18s. to 20s. per cwt. which is about equal to three farth- 

 ings a pint, or within a fraction of the price usually obtained for 

 butter milk. The sour milk whey is mixed with meal, and forms 

 excellent food for the pigs. 



Skeej). 



Sheep-farming is not very extensively followed in Bute. All 

 the farms carrying pure bred stocks are in the north end, and the 

 ■chief of them are Khubodach, Kilmichael, Hilton, and Glenmore. 

 The stocks carried on these hills are mixed flocks of blackfaced 

 •ewes and wethers. A little more than thirty years ago several 

 of the farmers sold off their blackfaced sheep and bought in 

 Cheviots, but it was found that the Border favourites were very 

 unprofitable, and for the last twenty years there have been few or 

 none of them in the island. An ejcperiment was also tried on one 

 •of these farms with crossing blackfaced ewes with Leicester tups, 

 but on account of the difficulty experienced in keeping up a 

 blackfaced stock the experiment was abandoned. Thirty years 

 ago the sheep on the Bute hills were very small and ill-con- 

 ditioned, but, chiefly through the energy of Messrs Crawford and 

 Duncan, the tenants of Kilmichael and Ehubodach, by the selec- 

 tion of good tups from the mainland, a great improvement has 

 been effected in their quality. The tups in use are for the most 

 part bought in from the flocks of Craigton, Milngavie, Foyer's, 

 Jvnowehead ; and Jardine's, Campsie. 



The tups are generally let out with the ewes aliout the 20th 

 Xovemljer, and the lambing season extends from the middle of 

 April to the middle of May. After going with their dams 

 between three and four months the lambs are weaned, and about 

 the middle of August all the tu])S and stock lambs are dipped 

 with the usual compositions. The himbs are ke])t from their 

 dams for about eight days, at the end of which time they are 

 sent off to the hills again, and usually find their old quarters. 

 At weaning time the weakest of the lambs are sold off to 

 graziers, who winter them and sell them in the ensuing autunni 

 as hoggs, to make up the stocks on farms where cross-bred lambs 

 are reared. 



The "cast" ewes .ire thawn about the 1st of October, and 

 dipping begins about the same date. For dipping, a trough is in 



