23-1 THE BLACKFACED BREED OF SHEEP. 



not nearly so great as it formerly was. The sheep, as has been 

 said, have improved in appearance just as they have grown in 

 popularity. Excepting the stocks of one or two breeders, they 

 were, within so recent a date as twenty years ago, sheep with 

 narrow frames and very little symmetry, now they are generally 

 well-proportioned and wide-ribbed. In nothing have they 

 altered more than in the styles in which they are set upon their 

 legs. In carcass and wool they have increased materially. A 

 common clip in former times seems to have been, as has been 

 pointed out, about 3 lbs. overhead in a general ewe and hogg 

 stock. At present a common clip is 4|- lbs., while in some cases 

 the average is as high as 5 or 6 lias. The staple of the wool has 

 increased in even greater proportion. Formerly the length was 

 usually from 4 to 5 inches; now it runs from 9 to 10 inches, and 

 it has been known occasionally to be as much as 15 inches. 

 The weight of the carcass has increased to such an extent that 

 eild ewes on good farms commonly average from 15 to 16 lbs. a 

 quarter, while in the best stocks they are sometimes equal to 20 

 lbs. From this it will be seen that both wool and carcass now 

 give a better return by at least 40 per cent, than formerly. 



In tracing the history of the breed from the time when they 

 became common over the country, the first mention found of a 

 breeder who appears to have attained eminence is that of David 

 Dun of Kirkton, whom the statistical writer for the parish of 

 Campsie says " has been with some propriety styled the Scotch 

 Bake well." Dun farmed what is described as pasture ground, 

 on the muirlands of the estate of Kirkton lands, which it may 

 be mentioned is now part of the farm of Knowehead, in the 

 occupancy of Messrs Foyer. In the Statistical Account of 1795, 

 he is described as having the best stock of blackfaced ewes that 

 are to be met with in Scotland. "They are," it is stated, "com- 

 pletely muir ewes " (which simply ineans blackfaced), and yet 

 they weigh 12 lbs. per quarter, 22^ ounces to the lb., or nearly 

 17 lbs. imperial per quarter. They are sold at a guinea a head 

 when fed. This breeder is also mentioned, in an account given 

 of the parish of Fintry, as a man " whose exertions in improving 

 the mode of grazing are truly laudable, and to whose example its 

 present advanced state, through a considerable part of the west 

 of Scotland, is in a great measure owing." Some indication is 

 given of the extent of the trade carried on by Dun. From this 

 account it does not seem to hav^e been a trade that would have 

 counted as anything w^orth notice at the present time. " He 

 annually sells," it is stated, '■' about 60 tup lambs of a year old, 

 for which he never receives less than a guinea each, and his 

 lambs for killing at annual sales in May at half a guinea each." 

 Dun, it may be added, was killed in 1794 by an accident which 

 happened to him while he was among his flock attending to 

 their shearing. He w^as leading a sheep across a bridge; the 



