SCOTCH HILL SHEEP. 263 



being good or bad in spring or winter. The size and quality of 

 a stock depends on there being a regular rotation of plants the 

 whole year through, one set coming forward for use as the pre- 

 ceding one begins to decline. 



It is the duty of the shepherd to keep his sheep regularly 

 going in the way mountain sheep naturally incline, viz., up to the 

 hill tops at night to lie, and down over the lower and usually 

 sweeter feeding ground through the day. Sheep, especially 

 Cheviots, sometimes get into lazy habits, and would remain all 

 the while on the low grass lands. If allowed so to do, by care- 

 lessness or otherwise, they very soon injure themselves as a flock, 

 and the death-rate increases ; the best land becomes filthy, and 

 the sheep do not have the varieties of food so beneficial to all 

 classes of stock ; and besides, mountain sheep if they are to 

 thrive require exercise. 



Another way in which sheep may go utterly to the bad, is 

 seen in the disease termed " vanquish," on land overlying 

 granite rock. If sheep are allowed to remain about the heights, 

 as they sometimes naturally incline to do, and are not regularly 

 turned down, so that they may have a thorough change of food, 

 they become excessively poor, and die of sheer weakness. 

 There is no organic disease, simply anaemia, and if taken to a 

 good pasture and with a complete change, they begin to improve 

 at once. The disease has not been properly investigated, and its 

 actual cause is not understood. It is not the result of want 

 of food, as is often supposed by those who have never seen it. 

 It has something to do with the quality of food, no doubt, as 

 it is only caused by herbage grown on granite land when 

 sheep restrict themselves to a few varieties. We have known 

 a farm, which was very subject to the disease, get quite clear of 

 it by the sheep being made to run in large " hefts," and con- 

 sequently travel over more land, and by burning all rough land 

 which was not actually necessary for the sheep in spring. 



Another advantage of good shepherding is, that sheep are 

 turned into shelters in stormy weather, which in the end means 

 food, as it saves them from falling oft' in condition. When 

 once used to being taken to shelter, they will go themselves, 

 if caught by a snowstorm at night or when the sheplierd is 

 taken unawares. Thus he knows where to find them, Shelters 

 of various forms, made of high stone walls, are, or should be, 

 built on all exposed farms. Some object to more elaborate 

 shelters, such as plantations, because they say slieep lie there 

 often when the weather is fine enough for them to be out 

 gathering food, and thus spoil themselves. This would be the 

 fault of the shej)herd if allowed to occur. No doubt shelter is a 

 great boon, and the better the shelter the more valuable. A 

 man might as well say — " I won't have that lOU acres of really 



