220 THE BLACKFACED BREED OF SHEEP. 



lambing season. When ewes, heavy in lamb, are kept upon 

 such nutritious food, the growth of the horns of the male lambs 

 becomes so stimulated as to frequently entail the death of the 

 one or the other, or both ewe and lamb, during lambino^. Lambs 

 are often to be seen among Highland flocks as early as the 1st 

 of April, but farmers have been taught some costly lessons in 

 recent years, to guard against early lambing. The hoggs are 

 put to the hills when taken home from the wintering, but 

 breeding ewes are, as a rule, kept on dry ground near the farm 

 steadings or sheep cots, in order that the closest attention can 

 be given them during the critical period. It is customary, when 

 practicable, to give a few turnips to ewes immediately after 

 lambing, and this enriches the supply of milk for the lambs. 



Tup lambs are castrated about the end of June, or when they 

 are eight or ten weeks old. Clipping is begun among hoggs 

 about the middle of June, and is generally finished about the 

 second week of Julv. It is the custom on manv farms to wash 

 the sheep before clipping them. In the shearing operation 

 mutual assistance is frequently given. Keighbouring shepherds 

 help each other during the clipping. The sheep are generally 

 branded on the horn or marked with tar or paint at clipping, 

 while some farmers dip them immediately after the fleece is 

 removed. The lambs are allowed to remain with their mothers 

 until the end of July, when weaning begins. At this stage the 

 lambs (but in some cases the wether lambs are not weaned till 

 later on) are separated from the ewes and kept on clean pasture, 

 usually preserved for the occasion, for at least a fortnight, out of 

 hearing of their mothers. Commonly the " weeding out " process 

 takes place at the weaning season, that is the singling out of 

 inferior lambs, or technically speaking " shotts," which are then, 

 or shortly afterwards, disposed of along with " cast '"' ewes. The 

 age at which ewes become "cast "is, generally speaking, five 

 years, but in exceptional cases they are sent to the market earlier. 

 The prices of " short " lambs vary from 8s. to 16s., while those of 

 "cast" ewes range from 16s. to 24s. This year (1883) prices 

 were several shillings a head over these sums. These are 

 disposed of at the nearest market. Sheep farmers in the North 

 and West Highlands are largely accommodated for disposing of 

 their summer drafts by the Fort-William and Inverness sheep 

 and wool fairs, and the Muir of Ord markets, while the Falkirk 

 trysts and Lanark fairs are the chief emporiums of southern 

 flockowners. Since so many extensive districts in the High- 

 lands were cleared of men and black cattle and converted into 

 sheep walks, immense flocks of black faced sheep — chiefly 

 wethers — are annually disposed of at Doune and Falkirk trysts, 

 and driven into the Lothians and England, where they are fed 

 on turnips. A few flockowners, who have a lowland farm 



