Mountain B)'eeds of Sheep. 369 



the enclosed orround below the hill, and stay there three weeks. 

 They are not especially hardy, and require to be wintered pretty 

 well with hay, if it is a snowy season. Fell life for a certain 

 poi'tion of the year is essential to the Lonks, as the heather gives 

 them bone, and acts as an antidote to foot-rot. The hoggs are 

 generally kept down in the lowlands from September to April, 

 and those which are meant for store or Christmas shows are 

 " fed from the post," and scarcely ever see the hill. For lean 

 wethers the quotations range according to quality from 1/. to 

 dOs., and for fat from 21. lOs. to 3/. Mr. Jonathan Peel proved 

 at the last Smithfield Club what sheep fed below the hill could 

 do, as his pen and three prize shearling wethers averaged 215 

 lbs. each, when they were weighed on October 25th, and their 

 clip on April 4th averaged 11 lbs. The celebrated show sheep 

 ■" Mountain King," which was bred at Hould Top, and made the 

 Knowlmere flock, was the grandsire of this trio on both sides, 

 and when he was in his hey-day his own fleece weighed 18 lbs. 

 A breeder of many years standing writes to us as follows : — " I 

 never saw my mountain flock so full of wool as they are this 

 year. The average will be about 5 lbs., but it is generally 

 4^ lbs. Those kept on the low lands will of course clip more, 

 about 6 or 7 lbs., and some as high as 8 lbs." These calcula- 

 tions will, however, only apply to a flock which is well looked 

 after on a good fell range. The wool is long in the staple, but 

 rough about the breeching, a point on which the Leicester cross 

 improves it, and it goes principally into the hands of the manu- 

 facturers of Rochdale, for blankets and the finest cloths. During 

 1857-65, prices varied from 18^. 9d. to 32^. the stone of 16 lbs. 

 Three -year-old wethers from the fell, when grazed out on good 

 grass-land, kill to about 18 lbs. per quarter of fine-grained 

 well-mixed mutton, which a Lonk breeder would consider it 

 flat heresy in an epicure to rank after Southdown or Welsh. 

 With fairly good feeding and a fillip from turnips, 5 lbs. to 7 lbs. 

 a quarter more can be reached, but the sort cannot be ranked 

 among very fast feeders. 



The North Wales sheep are generally white in the face and 

 legs, and the ewes have scarcely any horn. The flocks number 

 from 50 to 500 ewes, and some of them are still larger. Very 

 little care has been taken to select proper tups ; bad ones reign 

 on from year to year, and a progenies vitiosior follows in male 

 tail. The hoggs are mostly brought to the low grounds in 

 winter, and the older wethers as well, before they go to the 

 butcher or to gentlemen's parks in England to be finished on' 

 grass. Among the smaller Welsh farmers they only see turnips 

 or hay occasionally. In fact, they never take very kindly 



2 B 2 



