370 Mountain Breeds of Sheep. 



to turnips, from not havingr eaten tliem in their youth, and thej 

 would rather starve at a show than touch artificial food. Like 

 the Shetland sheep, they own no covering but the sky. Many 

 of their mountain haunts are little better than large loose heaps 

 of stones with patches of coarse grass in the crevices. Others, 

 on the contrary, have good pasturage, at great heights, from 1500 

 to 1800 feet, and these are generally overstocked. Some Caer- 

 narvonshire sheep-walks are 3469 feet above sea-level, and are 

 let at a rent proportioned to the quality of the pasture, and not 

 as in some parts of Scotland, according to the number of sheep 

 kept. Several of the tenants have riglits of commonage for so. 

 many head of sheep, but this is not generally to the flock-master's 

 advantage, as it often tempts him to put more sheep on the 

 already overstocked commons, and keeps the poor animals in 

 such a state of starvation, that the winter cuts them off by 

 hundreds. 



At four years old the fat wethers do not weigh much above 

 40 lbs. dead weight, and clip from l^lb. to 2 lbs. of washed 

 wool. The Blackface cross was tried, and brought an increase 

 both in size and wool, without any sacrifice of hardiness ; but it 

 was not persisted in, as the wool came coarse, and the mutton 

 rather yellow. The Hon. Colonel Pennant, M.P., and some 

 other improving proprietors in Caernarvonshire, have done 

 a good deal by crossing the Welsh with the Cheviot. The plan? 

 has been more generally adopted on the lower grounds ; but still 

 on one of the Colonel's mountain farms they have done well at 

 an altitude of 1800 feet. The Penrhyn Castle crosses are bred 

 on the mountain farms, and sent down to be weaned and 

 wintered. They then return to the mountain for three years, 

 and are brought down at their fourth winter and kept on 

 grass, a few turnips, and hay if the weather is very bad, and 

 killed off when they are ready. Sometimes, but very rarely, the 

 cross produces a true type of Welsh sheep. Three crosses of 

 Cheviot has increased the Welsh sheep from 40 lbs. dead weight 

 {i.e. carcase without the head or legs from the knee, when the 

 farmers sell by so much per lb.) to about 70 lbs.,* and has also 

 more than doubled the wool, on which the third cross seems to 

 have no effect. Sheep of this cross were too heavy for the moun- 

 tain, and the trial of a cross-bred ram sent down the size again. It 

 was also found that the continued use of the Cheviot ram, which 

 improved the texture of the mutton, and gave it more fat, as long 

 as it was confined to two crosses, tended to make it too light in 

 colour. No pure Welsh leg of mutton should exceed 4^ lbs. ; 

 larger ones are doubtful in their origin ; and even a voucher 



* Fed on hay and turnips they have reached 90 lbs. 



