412 THE SHEEP OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



the cross-bred mountain ewes, tlie largest I could get, which 

 when fat made 111b. to 151b. per quarter. I kept them for 

 years, and will go back to them again, I believe, this winter for 

 breeding lambs. My sheep are too good for my poorest land. 

 These little ewes were by far the best nurses I ever had, and 

 four-fifths of them brought twins by small-headed Southdown 

 rams, the lambs weighing from 81b. to 111b. per quarter at the 

 fair on July 10. I exclude almost every horned ewe from the 

 flock. Many of the diminutive little ewes had the lambs by 

 their sides much heavier and bigger than themselves." 



In the winter time, just before lambing commences, the 

 farmers on the mountain side bring the sheep down into their 

 small inclosures, and, in addition to the grass the sheep con- 

 sume, they are given small quantities of hay or oats. The oats 

 are always given in sheaf ; the mountain sheep would not know 

 what to make of clean corn, and would not look at it. All the 

 lambs kept in stock as ewes or wethers are shorn in July or 

 August. When they are weaned the mothers are milked for a 

 month or two, and butter is made of the milk, or it is mixed 

 with skim milk to make cheese. Milking sheep, however, is 

 l)ecoming less common every day, and where the practice half a 

 century ago was almost universal, it is hardly known at the 

 present time. The young Welsh farmer, economical and of 

 small means as he usually is, finds in mountain ewes a good 

 basis for his future flock. The ewes are bought cheaply in the 

 summer and autumn months, after their lambs have been 

 weaned or sold. By continued crossing with larger animals, he 

 at last establishes a paying if not a fashionable class of sheep 

 — ewes and wethers that are thrifty in seeking food, and which 

 when killed die well. The improved strain is almost invariably 

 commenced and continued by the purchase of ram lambs. 

 Aged rams seldom or never exchange hands. Lamb rams in 

 Wales, just as yearling bulls in Switzerland, are supposed to get 

 more vigorous offspring than older sires ; and twins are said to 

 follow the younger rams more frequently than those of a riper 

 age. 



When brought into the inclosures, these sheep are founa 

 difficult to keep within bounds. Fences such as are usually 

 found, low stone walls, turf banks, or hawthorn and hazel 



