72 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



much further south) ; and it may happen, that 

 some reailer of this report may have seen, and will 

 know them, by the marks now ijiven. 



When he determined to put his pa.vture land 

 under Cheviot sheep, he resolved thoroughly to 

 drain tiie surliice ol" it in the n)anner then done on 

 the easiern borders, and to put his Hocks under the 

 superintendence oCbord'T shepherds. They were 

 chiefly younir men, who married and brought 

 norih their sTveethearts with them. He settled 

 Ihem in cottaifes on suitable parts of the farm ; 

 givinir to each, where the siiuaiion admitted ofit a 

 youns man to board with them, in the manner 

 agreed on with his tillage servants. The sliep- 

 herds' wages, however, much exceed those given 

 to ploughmen. It asheplierd does his duty, he 

 must exercise a deal ofconsideralion, and undergo 

 much hardship ; to which the man whose sleep is 

 soundest in the wildest storm, and whose meat is 

 regularly placed before him daily at certain hours, 

 is not subjected. The householder is afforded a 

 cottage and garden, thirteen bolls of meal, grass 

 for three cows and one pony, with the profit to be 

 derived from seventy Cheviot sheep of the different 

 sorts each, mixed among the master's sheep ol'the 

 same kind. The younir men get board and lodg- 

 ing in the householder's liimily, and the profit 

 derived from sixty sheep. The reporter employ- 

 ing eleven married shepherds and eight 3'ounfr 

 men, this gives the number of twelve hundred and 

 filly shepherds' sheep or packs minirled among 

 the master's flocks and spread over the larm ;* and 

 thus, something very like a partnership concern 

 tacitly exisis between master and servant ; for 

 although the management rests entirely with the 

 master and his managing shepherd, yet is every 

 shepherd, old and young, deeply interested in the 

 skill, prudence, and vigor employed ; and that 

 master will prosper badly who does not hear, and 

 patiently inquire into, all that every shepherd has 

 to say, concerning each and every part of the 

 management; taking due care as he goes on, as 

 much as possible, to ideniily the interest of each 

 with that of the whole community. 



iJefjre explaining his particular mode ofworkinnn 

 the slock of this larm with Morvich and Culmaily 

 the reporter mnst mention one or two particulars 

 appertaining to the farm, which had weight with 

 him in deciding on that management. In the first 

 place there turned out to be no one herding on it, 

 where in the ordinary mode of laying on and tend- 

 ing lambs or hogs, they could be kept, without an 

 enormous loss, by an inflammatory disease of the 

 Blomach, called •sickness,' or 'braxy.' They were 

 tried in separate herdings, and they were tried 

 following their mothers throughout the year ; but 

 with such bad success, that the loss seldom ft:!!l 

 short of fifteen per cent., and varied betwixt that 

 and thirty. Secondly, several of the herditigs, 

 which were in a greater degree incumbent on 

 mica slate, with little variety of fine grass on them 

 were found subject to a disease called pining — a 

 general wasting of the body, and prostration of the 



* The parks have marks totally different from the 

 flock, and thfir faces have no brand or burn mark. 

 The master keeps the shepherds' accounts, and ba- 

 lances them by double entry : if he do his duty, decep- 

 tion cannot fake place. So many checks arise out of 

 the system that he woidd quickly discover any thinj^ 

 wronjj. They are a well-paid, and °;enerall}% "almost 

 universally, an honest, trustworthy class of people. 



strength of the animal, followed, if not cured, by 

 death. And lastly, the skins brought in were 

 found to consist, in a great degree, of those of the 

 youngest and worst-fed lambs, which It'll at every 

 age by pining "or drowning, or both, after having 

 gone through the ordeal of the braxy. 



Four remedies for these evils were devised, and 

 with some success. First, for the pining, it oc- 

 curred that the immediate removal of the patient 

 from its former 'haifl' or herding, to felspar land, 

 and from that, if necessary, to the sandstone land 

 at Culmaily, might be efficacious. It was tried, 

 and with such good efftjcf, that, wfien taken in 

 lime, the felspar land alone answered the purpose. 

 In other cases they were obliged to be sent down 

 to Culmaily. Secondly — The wedder lambs, five 

 hours of rape and turnips, with nineteen hours of 

 heather, per day and night, effectually saved. 

 Thirdly — As it had been discovered ihat, after 

 several years' de|)asture of certain herdings by old 

 sheep, lambs might, for one year, be trusted on 

 them, if we!l herded ; therefore, in order to save 

 the ewe lambs, the farm was thrown into ihe fol- 

 lowing courses — Nos. 1, 7, 4, of Sir.ithnaver and 

 Morvich were called (bur-ewe and ewe-hog herd- 

 ings, of which three kept ewe flocks, and the fourth 

 ewe hogs, after it had been three years bitten by 

 grown sheep, and Nos. 2, 6, 9, were wedder herd- 

 ings, one of which was under eweliogs, after hav- 

 ing been two years bitten bj' grown sheep. Lastly 

 to save the young lambs, the lambing was made 

 as early as the climate jiermitted. Thespeaning 

 was performed nearly a ibrtnight sooner than had 

 been Ibrmerly practised, and the youngest and 

 poorest lambs were sent at once to Ihe best and 

 mosi successful pasture, the more quickly to ad- 

 vance them to maturity. 



By a vigilant attention lo those measures Ihe 

 losses on the farm were reduced nearly one halfj 

 and the stock of every age exhibited a greater 

 degree of health, and the sale lot more equality 

 than the reporter or his people had in other circum- 

 stances seen. 



To stimulate the shepherds to individual exer- 

 tion, the reporter is in the practice of throwing out 

 little premiums for competition among them, and 

 he believes they do exert themselves very fairly. 

 Nevertheless, there remains seven to eight per 

 cent, annual loss on sheep lambed on the farm, 

 and from len to fifteen p.er cent, deficiency on 

 what, from the number of ewes put to the tup, 

 ought to be lambed against which he has not yet 

 prevailed. Yomiger men will be found hereafter, 

 who, possessed of greater science to arrange and 

 skill to execute, will point out the errors of this 

 day, as the present stock farmers smile at the folly 

 of those who went belbre them, and who were 

 content with the trifle which they realized from the 

 cattle and Highland ponies that waded through 

 the undrained bog and trampled it into mire. 



In going n)ore into detail of his management, he 

 will first exhibit the manner in which his flocks 

 now possess his f^irm, and then, beginning with 

 ihe lamb when unhivcd at speaning time, he will 

 show how each sort of sheep is with him treated 

 from that lime until it go lo market. 



In this year (1830,^1831) Nos. 1,7, 8, and 4 

 are under ewes : Morvich and ihe north side of 

 No. 2 in ewe hogs ; Culmaily in wedder hogs, 3 

 and part of 9 in yill gimmers.* South side of 2 



* Ewe hogs once shorn. 



