THE BLACK-FACED OR SCOTCH MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 385 



and kept there with their dams until weaning time, which is 

 early in August. The tup lamhs are then taken to the arable 

 farm at Duddingston, and put upon good sound grass, where they 

 remain till about Martinmas. Thereafter turnips and hay con- 

 stitute the dietary until March, when those intended for the 

 show yard are clipped and fed on oilcake, beans, and grass till 

 the date of competition. The tups intended for sale get similar 

 treatment, excepting the cake and beans. The ewes and gim- 

 mers for exhibition are fed on grass and turnips, and the bulk 

 of the breeding stock grazed on good pastures during summer, 

 and wintered on low grounds. 



The improvement in the quality of the wool has by no means 

 been commensurate with the progress in the breeding and the 

 enlargement of carcass. In fact, one of the aims of modern 

 breeders has been to increase the length and weight of the 

 fleece, comparatively regardless of its quality. On an average 

 the weight of the black-faced fleece would be about 31b. As 

 wool growers these animals take a minor place compared with 

 their rank as mutton producers. The price per stone is not much 

 more than half that realised for the finer sorts of wool from 

 white-faced sheep. On the other hand, the mutton of black-faces 

 commands deservedly the highest market rates. Some fanciers 

 of the breed prefer a speckled face, others with white predominat- 

 ing, and not a few with black the ruling tinge. The more richly 

 speckled face is supposed by some to denote a delicacy of con- 

 stitution. Be this as it may, we confess an admiration of the 

 face with black the strongest element. The horn should be hard 

 and free from a bloody aspect, otherwise the animals may be 

 regarded as soft and unhealthy. Neither in the case of ram nor 

 ewe should the horn turn close to the head. We have observed, 

 as a rule, that those beasts whose horns threatened to pinch 

 their heads, even though cutting relieved the animal of any pain 

 therefrom, were less healthy and throve less satisfactorily than 

 those whose horns sprung wider. 



A model specimen of the black-faced breed should have long 

 arched hard horns turned quite clear of the side of the head, 

 bare face and legs, an entire absence of any doss on the face, or 

 of a brownness on the legs. Either black or white should be the 

 ruling hue in the face, not an equal portion of both. A Eoman 



c 



