372 Mountain Breeds of Sheep. 



so much a week for their food. The wethers are generally kept 

 up to five years old, and are then sent to Welshpool, and more 

 especially to Newtown Fair on October 26th, where the jobbers 

 and farmers have often 8000 to pick over. 



What has been said about Upper Radnorshire applies as much 

 to the higher parts of Montgomeryshire and Cardigan, but with 

 this exception, that the Cardigan wethers seldom go to a fair. 

 Many of them are bought for parks, and improve amazingly on 

 the 5 lbs. to 6 lbs. per quarter which they would weigh on their 

 arrival. Once the farmers were glad to sell the draft ewes at 

 all prices, from 3/. 10^. to 71. a score ; but although there is little 

 or no change in their size, the jobbers and the railways have 

 brought them out, and 18/. to 20/. has been reached for them. 

 Some jobbers will buy their 10,000 from two or three counties, 

 and have no difficulty whatever in placing them out each 

 September and October. INIany of them are bought for the 

 lower ground in Montgomeryshire, and others go into Surrey, 

 Bucks, and Berks, — where their fame as sucklers has preceded 

 them, — and breed excellent early lambs by a Leicester or 

 Southdown. A small percentage are killed in driving, and they 

 require some shepherding before they settle down to their new 

 rural life, as they have been known to break all bounds, and to 

 be drowned in the rivers and ditches. 



In the lower part of Radnorshire a different style of sheep and 

 sheep-farming prevails. Radnor Forest and Clun Forest, which 

 form the boundary line between Montgomeryshire and Shropshire^ 

 have been enclosed. The paring-plough has done its work, and 

 seeds and turnips on the hundred-acre allotments have succeeded 

 heather and ling. The hardy, close-fleeced Shrop has also been 

 a most able adjutant, and lambs by him from the Welsh ewes, 

 and fed on these pastures, are worth from 305. to 35^. at seven 

 months. Very good lambs of the sort are also to be found about 

 Knighton, and some of the Clun Foresters near Kerry Pole 

 (which lies in the route of the sale wethers from Knighton to 

 Newtown) fetched 54s. as two-shears last year. 



The Exmoors are spread over the hill district in the north 

 of Devon and the western part of Somerset, a large portion of 

 which is uncultivated. There are also a few in the south of each 

 county, and they are bred to a small extent in Cornwall. They 

 hold their own on the purely hill districts, but since the Com- 

 mons Enclosure Act many farmers have crossed them with the 

 Leicester, A larger sheep has been secured, but at the expense 

 of stamina and numbers. These "knotts," as they are styled^ 

 are generally without horns. Ewes of the sort have been par- 

 tially adopted by some of the Cornwall farmers, and Mr. 



