COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CROMARTY. 201 



Balnagowii owns an immense stretcli of pasture land. He 

 himself occupies the forest farm, which is valued at L.IOOO, and 

 on which he keeps a large and very fine breeding stock of 

 Cheviot sheep. The hogs are wintered in Easter Eoss, but the 

 others remain all the year round on the forest farm. The 

 pasture is generally pretty good, with several very beautiful 

 green straths, in which limestone exists extensively. Leaving 

 Kincardine and proceeding towards the south-east, we pass 

 through the large and valuable forests of Strath Vaich and Strath 

 Piannoch, with Glen Diebidale and several other fine grazings on 

 our left ; we at last join a welcome friend — the " Iron Horse " 

 — at Garve ; and here our hurried notes must end. 



General System of Management. 

 "From these necessarily hasty notes it may be gathered that 

 wherever green pasture is plentiful Cheviot sheep are to be 

 found ; where the pasture is mixed a few half-breds or three- 

 part bred sheep are reared ; and where it becomes more moderate 

 the Black-faced breed prevails. A few farmers have ewe stocks 

 only, aud a few wether stocks only, but by far the majority have 

 a mixture of ewes and wethers. As a rule the wethers are kept 

 separate from the ewes and marked off into different " hirsels," 

 each shepherd having his own distinct mark. Almost all breed- 

 ing stocks, whether Cheviot, cross, or Black-faced, are managed 

 pretty much on the same broad principles, though in the minutiae 

 of the systems of several of the farmers there may be a little 

 variety. The tups are let loose from the 2()th to the 27th of 

 j^ovember, and taken in again about the end of December or 1st 

 of January, and from forty to sixty ewes are apportioned to each 

 tup, according to the lie of the land. The lambs thus drop dur- 

 ing the last two weeks of April and first week of May, and are 

 aliow-ed to suck their mothers till about the 12th or 15th of 

 August, when they are shifted on to good pasture for a 

 short time. The " shotts " or small ewe lambs, and " cast " or 

 old ewes (about five years), are sold either hy reputation at the 

 Inverness Wool Fair, or at the autumn markets at the Muir of 

 Ord. Cast Cheviot ewes usually bring from 25s. to 35s., while 

 shott lambs vary from 8s. to IGs. Black-faced cast ewes sell at 

 ironi 18s. to 24s., and " shott " lambs from 8s. to 15s ; three-year- 

 old wethers are generally sold at the Inverness Wool Fair for 

 delivery about tlie month of September ; and for those of the 

 Cheviot breed the ])rices range from 35s. to 48s. ; while Black - 

 faced wethers usually bring from 28s. to 37s. ; Cheviot wether 

 Iambs sell at from 15s. to L.l. Those who keep ewe stocks only, 

 sell off their wether lambs, the cast ewe lambs, aud the cast ewes 

 every autumn, and retain the better ewe lambs to recruit their 

 stock of ewes. A good many sheep-farmers hold also arable 



