454 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXIX- 



The above table shows the average vv'eights, at two years to thirty months 

 old, of both ewes and wedders — the latter of which produce the larger quan- 

 tity of both wool and mutton ; but is only intended to convey an idea of 

 the original flocks which formerly covered the pastures of the United King- 

 dom, for so many half-breeds have been since introduced by repeated 

 crosses between the Merinos, Dishleys, Southdowns, and almost every other 

 species, that they are now found partaking of the various descriptions of 

 each kind ; many much improved in their material points, and in others 

 injured, while some have become nearly extinct. As an instance of im- 

 provement in one race, the weights of the wool and carcass of the Cheviots, 

 fed upon the Grampians and the other mountainous parts of the north of 

 Scotland, into which they have been latterly introduced, were, up to the 

 year 1800, such as those stated in the table : yet we learn from Mr. Sellar, 

 of Strathnaver, in Sutherlandshire, that, merely by dint of persevering 

 attention to the choice of rams, the change of herbage, and placing the 

 sheep of different ages upon appropriate pasture, together with supplies of 

 some artificial food in the pinching seasons of the year, he has raised the 

 average of the wool to 4 and 4^ lbs. per fleece, and that of the flesh of the 

 wedders, when rising four years old, from 18 to 26 lbs. per quarter.* 



The a^e of sheep is commonly counted from the period of their first 

 shearing, instead of the time at which they have been dropped as lambs ; 

 and may be known, like that of cattle, by the appearance of the fore-teeth 

 of the lower jaw, of which they have also eight: the upper jaw being with- 

 out any in the front. During the first year, they are all of small size, but 

 when from fourteen to sixteen months old they renew the first two, and 

 two more every year until the fourth shearing, at which time they are 

 "full-mouthed." The period of the first renewal depends, however, in some 

 measure not only upon the season of lambing, but also upon the goodness 

 of the sheep's keep ; those which are well fed, usually having them the 

 earliest renewed. 



Their natural age is generally about nine or ten years ; but their teeth 

 begin to fail in the sixth or seventh year, when they become what is called 

 " broken-mouthed," and, being then deprived of the power of easily masti- 

 cating their food, they fall off in flesh ; they are therefore, even when kept for 

 breeding, before that time most usually slaughtered. Formerly, indeed, 

 when the chief object of the farmer was the fleece, they were seldom killed 

 before five or six years old, and that is still the custom over a great extent 

 of the Continent; but, when our population increased, both the demand of 

 mutton, and the power of speedily fattening sheep through the means of 

 the turnip husbandry, together with the great improvement made in some 

 of the breeds, introduced the practice of bringing them earlier to maturity, 

 and now they are very g-enerally brought to market within two or at most 

 two and a half years of age, though it must be confessed that the discovery 

 has brought a breed into vogue that manufactures its food into fat, and 

 gives nothing to gravy. f Heath-bred Cheviot, and black-faced moun- 

 tain sheep do not, however, come to perfection until the wethers are three 

 years old, rising four, and the ewes five, rising six ; nor are they in practice 

 usually killed until they be of those ages. 



The male is called a "ram" or " tup," before he is castrated, after which 



* Farm Reports, No. 18. p. 77. 



■)■ Leicesters are commonly found at that age, with three or four inches of fat upon 

 their ribs, and a wedder of the Dishley breed, fattened by Mr. CuUey and killed at 

 Alnwick, had a coat of more than seven inches of solid fat; the whole of his back was 

 like the fattest bacon. — Quart. Jour, of Agric, vol. ii. p. 553. 



