470 BRITISH HUSBA.NDRY. [Ch. XXXIX. 



ought to be — upon level ground. Those of the late Lord Napier, in 

 Ettrick Forest, are upon that plan ; ten yards in diameter, with a three-feet 

 open door, and six feet higli ; accommodating 75 sheep, with an ordinary 

 accompaniment of lambs. The walls are of rough stone, with a coping of 

 sod, and the cost only calculated at about 40«. each ; the wages of the shep- 

 herd who assists in raising them, being, of course, not included*. 



There can be no manner of doubt that the shelter thus afforded to moun- 

 tain flocks in tempestuous weather is, wherever practicable, of great utility ; 

 but if not accompanied with food, it is comparatively useless, as the storm 

 often lasts during a long period, in which thev might be starved. Small 

 ricks of hay should therefore, if possible — that is to say, if the farm produces 

 it — be placed in each of the stells, and left open to the sheep; for the depth 

 of snow will sometimes prevent the shepherd from reaching them, and they 

 must be left to feed themselves f. 



It might, indeed, be supposed that they would consume the hay in pre- 

 ference to the grass, and that, having it at their option, they would become 

 indolent in their search of food, as well as reluctant to face the blast ; but 

 the objection is unfounded, as nothing but sheer hunger will compel a true- 

 bred mountaineer to quit its pasture, and it is extremely difficult to induce 

 sheep to eat dry hay if they have any kind of green food. In saying this, 

 however, we allude solely to the original black-faced Scots, uncrossed with 

 any other breed ; for they are a truly hardy race, adapted by nature to the 

 elevated regions in which they are placed, and never, in any weather, 

 seeking shelter, unless impelled by the instinctive approach of a snow-storm. 

 Now, those high-situated farms, though always the most extensive, and 

 having consequently the largest flocks, yet have invariably the smallest 

 portion of soil capable of producing hay. Caution should, therefore, be 

 used in the change of stock; and, as has been justly observed — " the im- 

 prover of sheep ought to consider before he interrupt the ordinary and long- 

 settled peculiarities in a breed, that it is not a dead or ungenerous soil he is 

 going to revivify, but it is a living organized creature upon which he in- 

 tends making a change ; and if, in his attempts to introduce some altera- 

 tion, he impart a weakness to the animal system, he unfits it for the climate 

 or for the pasture, and the change will prove in its effects mischievous and 

 destructive J". 



In fine, the respective advantages and disadvantages of the different 

 modes of folding, may be thus summed up : — 



The cojyimon moveable fold allows of the ground being regularly 

 dunged without any further cost than the trouble of removing the 

 hurdles. Being, however, commonly pitched upon arable land, the 

 dirt and wet are injurious to the animal ; and, if placed at any great 

 distance from the pasture, the labour of travelling prevents the stock 

 from fattening. 



The stell is only applicable as a place of security in mountain-storms 

 of snow. 



The standing fold may be phiced in any dry spot that is most con- 

 veniently situated, and if bedded either with sand or litter, composts 



* See Napier on Store Farming. 



f As the quantity of dried provender can never in those farms be very abundant, the 

 hay has been in some instances stored within the stells in small inclosed sheds, from 

 ■which it can be dealt out with a sparinj^ hand ; and in lambing time, they are used as 

 covered sheep-cotes. — See Farmer s Mag. vol. xxiii. p. 425. One pound per head, per day, 

 will save the animals from starving ; but they ought to have at least three pounds to 

 satisfy hunger, 



~ + Remarks of a Lammermuir Farmer on Napier's Treatise on Store Farming, — 

 Farm. Wag. vol. xxiv. p. 419. 



