90 FIELD AND FERN. 



farmers from the North and West Highlands ; and 

 for this reason Aberdeen yellows and globes are more 

 cultivated than swedes, which flourish better in it 

 than all the turnip tribes. The soil is so well suited 

 for folding that turnips are generally at a premium. 

 There is no home breeding to any great extent, and 

 what there is resolves itself into putting Leicesters 

 to half-bred and Cheviot ewes, and selling off the 

 produce when weaned, or holding them ontill they 

 are two shears. 



Earl Cawdor keeps about thirty ewes of that old 

 small Scotch breed of sheep, with horns and brown- 

 chesnut faces and legs, which have been gradually 

 pushed aside or " improved away." They are quite 

 the oldest variety in the North of Scotland, and are 

 to be found along the west coast and the small islands 

 from Islay northwards, where they are called " na- 

 tives." There are some in the Carse of Fendon on 

 the east coast near Tain, but only in a state of 

 keery serfdom. A small flock holds its own near 

 Duncan^s Bay in Caithness, and Mr. M' Arthur of 

 Broomtown near Auldearn has also a few, and inter- 

 changes with his lordship. The Cawdor flock was 

 formed thirty years ago from a few specimens picked 

 up among the crofters in the carses of Ardersier 

 and Delnies, and others from the late Mr. Ander- 

 son of Drumbain, whose flock is now extinct. His 

 lordship's factor, Mr. Stables, considers them " pretty 

 nearly the same breed as the Welsh and allied to 

 the Shetland. The most marked difference is in 



