542 SHEEP MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



from October loth till April 4th, cost 6s. 6d. to 8s. each, 

 and one to the score, or 5 per cent., is an ordinary death- 

 rate during that period. 



N. MacMillan, The Knowe, Kirkconnell, Dumfriesshire, 

 has for more than a decade fed Blackface wether lambs 

 with experience similar to that stated above, but also the 

 following : Highland bred lambs bare of wool make good 

 feeders and yield good results bought at iis. and finished 

 weighing 27 Ibs., at 2Os. on loth November. Good sorts of 

 Blackface wether lambs in fleshy condition to be finished in 

 December or early in January on turnips are put, at weaning, 

 in lots of 280 to 300 on to foggage not too rank, but clean 

 and fresh, and frequently changed so that they may improve 

 every day. In the first week of October they go on to half 

 an acre of soft, growing, but ripe turnips adjoining an acre or 

 two of bare ground from which the roots have been removed 

 to make room for the feeding troughs. Dry food, 2 oz. to 

 each, is begun at once and fed once a day. The amount is 

 gradually increased to 6 oz., but never more, and is ultimately 

 fed at twice. The best results are got from a mixture such 

 as equal parts of dried grains, sound maize (crushed), unde- 

 corticated cotton-cake, and oats, with a half amount of locust 

 beans. Turnip cutting begins when the first break of stand- 

 ing turnips is about two-thirds eaten, so that no check in the 

 supply of food occurs. Yellows follow soft turnips. On 

 swedes Blackface lambs lose their bellies, get less bulky, 

 and do not thrive so well. From ist November a little salt 

 is sprinkled on each trough of cut roots. Under this treat- 

 ment the best Blackface wether lambs should weigh, by about 

 2Oth December, 34 to 36 Ibs., and be worth 28s. to 323. 

 Smaller lambs take a little longer, but all should go off by 

 the middle of January, as they are not economical for 

 hogging. 



Blackface cast ewes fed on turnips for from twelve to 

 fourteen weeks, and wethers from the hills at three-years-off, 

 weigh, killed and dressed, 60 to 70 Ibs. ; wethers finished on 

 turnips a year younger, get up to about the same weights, 

 but the public taste is not now in favour of mature wether 

 mutton, and few are kept. 



The produce of a Blackface ewe by a Leicester ram is 

 called a " cross " or " mule " ; that by a Cheviot ram a " half- 



