FARMERS' REGISTER 



71 



ehire blood into the Norland breed of the country 

 durin<:f the last thirty yeiirs, during which his ioul- 

 ship has possessed the means u(" doing so i'rom 

 Dunrobin, they would, at thischite, hiive doubled 

 the value oi' the cattle export ol' the county ol 

 Sutherland. A.^siiredly the farnners could allord 

 to the people Ibr their yearlings twice the price now 

 paid were they bred in a difi'erent manner ; and this 

 remark is peculiarly applicable to the north coast, 

 where a great mixture of worthless Caithness 

 blood prevails. 



The sales for the southern market happen in 

 July, August, and September, and they clear the 

 fields in order to prepare them Ibr sowing wheat. 



Wheat. — Until bone-dust manure came into 

 use, this mode of cultivation could not be advan- 

 tageously Ibllowed ; and it is doubtful whether 

 oats may not, by-and-by, be found, after lea, the 

 best crop ofthe two. In the mean time no farmer 

 can refuse the premium offered by the cornlaws, 

 of 60s, Ibr wheat, in preference to 24s, lor oats, 



Tlie first operation is, to spread the dungsaveil 

 from the green crop on the leas. On strong lands 

 a cross rib or break furrow is usually given a lew 

 weeks belbre the seed llirrovv. To prevent the 

 seed from being deposited too deeply in the soil, it 

 is usual to give one stroke of the harrows before 

 the sower. The seed being steeped in the field 

 among stale urine, lights are skimmed off, and 

 the good corn is instantly dried with hot lime and 

 eown, and no smut has hitherto followed. On 

 light sharp loam, and on the rape land previously 

 eaten down by the small sheep it is sown upon 

 one fu'Tovv ; and in all cases the field is directly and 

 effectually water-furrowed, and shut up for winter. 



The produce varies from twenty, to forty bush- 

 els per acre. The species sown is the thin chafl'ed 

 Kssex ; in some cases the Talavera, The qua- 

 lity produced is coarse, and generally ground down 

 Ibr ship biscuit, A few additional plantations and 

 greater skill may improve the quality in a degree. 

 Still wheat is not naturally fit Ibr the country or 

 the climate, 



Oats. — On the lightest soil in Culmaily the au- 

 thor sows Angus oats at"ter one furrow in spring : 

 on the whole leas at Morvich, potato oais after 

 the same degree of cultivation. The Angus oats 

 nre generally consumed in horse food, the other in 

 ineal, for the use of from thirty to forty families 

 employed on the liirm. 



The oat straw is given to the horses in winter, 

 and to the Kyloes at that time, when the eatage 

 has got bare, and the turnips cannot be spared from 

 the young stock, which wait, at Culmaily, for the 

 return of the flower of the cotton grass. 



Sheep. — But, most assuredly in such a country 

 as nine-tenths of the county of Sutherland is, sheep 

 are at present the only animals litted lijr convert- 

 ing the vegetation into realizable value ; and wilii- 

 out free use of that part of the country fitted by 

 nature for affording to the flocks relu^'e liom the 

 wintry storms of the gneiss-district of mountain 

 lands, that value cannut be brought out. On some 

 ill laid out farms, not one hall^ and others not 

 much above one-third of the lambs bred, come to 

 be sold as grown sheep ; and the survivors, when 

 sold, are of! inferior quality, and bring a very poor 

 price. 



The plan followed by the writer of this report 

 to save these losses, and to make his sheep worthy 

 a better price, he will frankly lay before the render, 



after premising, first, his consiousnees of many 

 imperfections m it, and secondly, that what suits 

 his particular position may very possibly be una- 

 da|;ted to any other farm ; and most assuredly it is 

 so, according as the nature of the ground, the cli- 

 mate, the extent, or the pos-iiion of each particular 

 fain), with respect to markets, varies liom another. 



The sheep reared by the reporter, is the Che- 

 viot, which is one ofthe many varieties into which 

 the ovis aries anglica has, during the lapse of ages, 

 multiplied in consequence of the difi'erences in cli- 

 mate, food, and treatn)ent, to which it has been 

 subjected. The Cheviot hills are, perhaps, the 

 steepest and the highest ground in England to 

 which this species of sheep has been naturalized ; 

 and it is quite comprehensible lor a store liirmer 

 to understand how nature, seconded by the wishes 

 of the shepherd, should have gradually changed 

 the forms of any of the low country varieties, to 

 the light fore-ended, short and close woolled ani- 

 mal which is found among the border mountains. 

 In fact, one can scarcely treat on the pasture of 

 the Cheviot and survey the plains below, without 

 seeing, that as often as the ancient borderer brought 

 to his mountains the varieties of stock found in 

 the neighboring vales, the scanty spring Ibod, the 

 elastic air, and other peculiar features of this new 

 country, behoved to fashion the survivors of the 

 lambs there bred, and even if young, the ewes 

 that suckled them, to the small-neck, light lore- 

 end, fine short stunted wool and other properties 

 of the old Cheviot breed. 



The Messrs, Rubsons, of Belford, Samuston, 

 and Philogar, in Roxburghshire (from whose stock 

 a great portion of the reporter's sheep have been 

 bred), inlbrmed him that, about the year 1770 that 

 family imported from Lincoln, Gloucester, or 

 Uerelbrd, several sheep, a slight infusion of the 

 blood of which into their flocks was attended by 

 the best efl'ecis. Betwixt that time and the year 

 1790 the discovery of the use of green crops and 

 various other improvements had been made, and 

 must have greatly forwarded the views of the 

 spirited and intelligent border farmeis of those 

 days. From the year 1790 to the year 1800 the 

 weight of the Cheviot fleece is quoted at 2^ to 3^ 

 lbs,, and the quarter of mutton 12 to 18!bs, At 

 this day (1830) the weight of the reporter's sheep 

 bred in Suthcrlaud may be — fleece 4 to 4^ lbs, ; 

 quarter Irom 18 to 26 lbs. avoirdupois. Certainly 

 in strength of withers, fulness and breadth of chest, 

 stivngth of loins, length, breadth, and cleaving of 

 the rum|», depth of twist, and furnishings of the 

 arms and thighs, most likely, too, in constitution 

 and propensity to feed, the Cheviot aheep of this 

 day exceed that which went before them. 



The reporter's sale sheej) are raarlted as in the 

 foot-note*. They have cenerally been fed Ibr the 

 Leeds, Manchester,and Liverpool markets (though 

 some ofthe ewes have been, and are now, feeding 



* Each sheep has the letter C branded or burned in 

 the tar cheek, and a:i S imprinted with tar on the near 

 rib. 



Each wedUer has a fore bit and hole cut with an iron 

 out of the far ear. 



Each ewe has four bits in the one ear and a fork in 

 the top of the oppopite one. 



Some of his admirers have been known to go to mar- 

 h-cL with the S, but they have not yet ventured to assume 

 the other marks. 



