THE COUNTIES OF FORFAll AND KIXCAEDINE. 165 



lower and better parts, a good many wethers and ewes are re- 

 tained during almost the whole winter, being shifted only when 

 a very severe snow-storm sets in. Generally speaking, sheep are 

 much better wintered now than twenty-five years ago, and on the 

 whole there has been a slight improvement in the character of 

 the stock, though even as far back as 1855 a very high class 

 of sheep was kept in these counties. The only changes in 

 the system pursued since 1855, are that a greater number 

 of sheep are bred, and that a much larger number of the 

 W'ethers are now sold off at tw^o and a half years old. Indeed, 

 nearly one-half of the wdiole stock is now sold off at that age. 

 Breeding stocks, of course, require rather more careful manage- 

 meut than the whether flocks. The tups are let loose about the 

 22d of Xovember. The ewes are taken to low ground for a 

 short time when their regular runs are deficient in pasture, or 

 wdien there is a heavy snowstorm on the hills ; but they receive 

 no turnips. In a good year a lamb for almost every ewe is 

 reared in some flocks, ninety per cent, being about the average. 

 Among lambs the annual death-rate is about five per cent., and 

 among older sheep from two to three. In exceptionally bad 

 seasons, of course, the loss by death is much greater than this, 

 but on the other hand it is sometimes less. Of every one 

 hundred wether lambs bought at Lanark, probably about ninety 

 are sold when tw^o and a half or three and a half years old. 

 The death-rate among ewes is not, as a rule, much higher. Ewes 

 are generally sold as " casts " when four or five years old, most 

 generally five. Ewes are a w^eek or two longer in being clipped 

 than wetliers. The average yield of wool from ewes would be 

 from 3 to 3-J to 4 lbs. ; from hoggs, 3-^ to 4f lbs. ; and from wethers, 

 4 to 5 J lbs., sometimes even as much as 6 lbs. The whole stock 

 on some of the better farms, when w^ell wintered, averages close 

 on 5 lbs. a head of unwashed w^ool. The large majority, how- 

 ever, are rather below that. The dipping mixture used, to 

 which a little castor oil is occasionally added, costs from a Id. to 

 2d. a head. None are smeared now. The wintering: of hoirjjs or 

 lambs from the middle of October till the second week in April, 

 costs from 7s. to 10s. a head, the average being about 8s. or 

 8s. 6d. Eor a shorter period, and without turnips, older sheep 

 cost from 3s. to 5s. a head. The rent of sheep farms has risen 

 fully as much as that of arable land since 1855. It has 

 increased by about 25 per cent, since 1860. For grazings 

 on which sheep cannot be kept during winter, the rent 

 averages from 3s. to 4s. per head of the stock the farms main- 

 tain ; while for breeding and wintering land it rancres from 6s. 

 to as much as 10s. a head. For one large farm in the north- 

 eastern division of the county of Forfar, now rented at £400, the 

 rent paid thirty years ago consisted of one hundred three-year- 



