100 FIELD AND FERN. 



Elgin buying =800 or 900 worth of sheep from one 

 farmer alone, selling the coarser parts about home, 

 and consigning the finer to the South. Most of these 

 sheep were sold at sixteen months out of the wool, 

 and left nearly 2 17s. for keep in their breeders' 

 hands. The light soil suits sheep well, especially 

 when they are folded on turnips ; still the cast-ewe 

 system both here and in Banffshire is not of much 

 more than twenty years' date ; and before that, part 

 of the ground lay for the cleaning break in naked 

 fallow. Many of the half-bred lambs from Banff- 

 shire are spread over Morayshire, as well as Aber- 

 deenshire. Some of these Banff-breds were by 

 Cotswolds; but the shape and size of the head 

 were too often found a fatal objection at lambing, 

 whereas there was nothing of the kind with the 

 Lincoln. Mr. Greddes takes three crops of lambs 

 by a Border tup from his Caithness gimmers, and 

 then turns them off fat ; and others are beginning to 

 follow suit. A Shropshire tup on the Cheviot has 

 been a decided mutton success; but Southdowns 

 have never struck root in these counties, either pure 

 or as a cross. The wool of the ewes is 21b. below 

 that of the Leicesters, and the climate has never just 

 suited them, and in fact the tups seldom command 

 more than 35s. or 40s. 



The M'Kessacks, John and Robert, are on op- 

 posite sides of the Findhorn, near Torres. The 

 younger brother lives at Balnaferry, and breeds 

 good shorthorns, and feeds largely as well ; and the 



