FARMERS' REGISTER. 



73 



and 6 in dinmants,* and 5 and part of 9 in wed- 

 ders ; Morvich at llie same (ime kee|)inc^ the small 

 end of" tlie R;ile ewes ami llie owes selected Ibr 

 breedint;; tups ; Culmaily ilie small end of ilie salo 

 weihers and llie \u\) liirsel, and reserve lieitii]r l<ept 

 as lullow : — In Culmaily for any wellier sheep 

 diseased ; Morvicli Ibr ewe sheep diseased ; the 

 felspar land of No. 2 (or sheep pined on the west 

 side of the Naver, and that of No. 6 Cor sheep 

 pined on ;he east side of that river. When the 

 cotton-grass flowers in March, the Ibllowinji: shilis 

 will take place : — Morvich ewe hnjrs ijive place to 

 the sale ewe lot from 7 and part of b, wliicli are 

 then brought in to lam'o, and consequently, to 

 spean earl}', and prepare themselves to travel 

 poulh. The wether hogs in Culmaily give place 

 to a limiied number of the small end ol the sale 

 wethers, which make greater progress there than 

 on the mountain land, and thus prepar^i them- 

 selves for their further destination. 



Speaning, — Then to begin with the lamba. At 

 speaning (weaning) time, which happens in the 

 Fale ewe hirsel about ihe 11th, and in the keeping 

 flocks about the 18lh ol' July, the lambs are found 

 with the marks \i'hich had been put upon them at 

 ■cutting time in April and May, and which consist 

 t>f the ear marks of the owners and the figure or 

 ■* biiist mark' of the hirsel. Tliis figure on the 

 -pack sheep was reverted on the shoulder to facili- 

 tate after sortings. 



The operation begins by gathering the flocks 

 shedding off yell sheep (or those which have no 

 lambs), and felling the numbers en hand. This 

 generally occupies a da}'. The yell sheep being 

 despatched to their proper places the ewes and 

 lambs are committed to their ewe herds who 

 watch them during the short nights of this season. 

 By daylight next morning, the flock is folded ; by 

 seven, the lambs are separated from iheir mothers ; 

 the mothers sent off under their own shepherds 

 fo the barren ground where their milk is to be 

 dried up, and th(! lambs left in three folds. The 

 first contains wedder lambs, the second ewe Iambs 

 and the thin! packs. At tJiis stage the men 

 generally breakfast in the Ibid; immediately after 

 which the wedder lambs are divided into three sorts 

 called tups, mids, and paleys. The tups are 

 branded with a hot iron, buisted with a distinguish- 

 ing tar mark, and, under charge of the second 

 wedder hog herd, despatched to a tract of coarse 

 pasture along the banks of numerous litile burns 

 (on 5 and 6) which fall into Loch Layjial, there fo 

 be tended until the middle of September. The 

 mids are in like manner branded and buisted, de- 

 livered to the third wedder hog herd, to be sum- 

 tnered, until the middle of August, on No. 2, where 

 several little burns fall into Badanloch ; and the 

 paleye (young weak and stunted lambs) are, un- 

 der the charge of one of the principal men, sent 

 -directly to the h:iy-lbg or aftermath, and other 

 succulent food prepared for them at Culmaily. 

 The ewe larnl)R are then sorted into three lots : — 

 First, the paleys are chosen, branded, buisted and 

 despatched straightway to the hay-fog prepared 

 for them on Morvich. Secondly, the woiet-bred 

 Iambs are despatched to the outskirts of the wed- 

 •der herding, intended to be in that year shifted to 

 hogs. And, thirdly, the tops (the most choice 

 and best breed) possess the outskirts of the ewe 



* Wedder hogs once shorn. 



VoT* vjn— 10 



I herding, to be In that year shifted to hogs. The 

 I packs, or shepherds' lambs, arc divided into two 

 sorts, sellers and keepers: the first, being heeled 

 or marked with red chalk, are delivered to the. 

 buyers, or put into an inclosure to wait their arrival; 

 the second are divided among the flock lamb hir- 

 sels. This concludes the speaninir. 



Wcdden>. — When the small wedder Iambs reach 

 Culmaily, generally to the amount of fifteen to 

 twenty scores, they are, after a i'^w days' rest on 

 the sandstone mountain, minutely examined, any 

 lame ones dressed, the weakest portion put into Ihe 

 hay-fi3g, then about three weeks old, and the rest 

 admitted to the sweetest of the mountain-grass. 

 About the 12ih August the sale wedders are deliv- 

 erpd, and the mid lambs (iom No. 2, and the best 

 ofthe paleys, are admitted fo their place. By the 

 12 h September the rape is ready for use: the 

 lambs, then paley, are sent to five hours' rape and 

 nineteen of lieather in the day and night. The 

 mids are admitted to tiie place formerly possessed 

 by the paleys, and the tops from No. 5 and 6 to 

 the former position cfthe mids. In this posture the 

 lots remain until about the 15ih October : the early 

 turnips being now fit for use, nets are set up across 

 the fops ofrach of three fields, a lot smeared* info 

 each, and five hours' turnips to nineteen of heatherf 

 allowed (or the rest of the season. With March 

 comes the cotton-grass flower ; what turnips re- 

 main are then mostly consumed by cattle, and such 

 ofthe wedder hogs as are fit to liice the blast pro- 

 ceed to Straihnaver — the best lot by the first week 

 of March, the next about the third week of March 

 and the worst about the 1st April: one or two 

 scores may be unfit to go sooner than Whitsunday. 



It is observed at speaning-time that the paleys 

 consist of two sorts, viz., first, well-bred lambs, 

 which, by reason of being very young, or twins, 

 or badly fed by their mothers, or some other mis- 

 fortune, are much under pize ; and, secondly, ill- 

 bred Iambs, marked by a tendency to short, stubby 

 faces, broad bumpy wiry brows, flat ribs, sharp 

 shoulder-top, round gurning- bones, and twisted 

 legs. When the spring sortings take place, the 

 well-bred mids and paleys are generally found to 

 have advanced themselves to the tops ; ihe ill-bred 

 sheep have as certainly sunk to the bottom, and the 

 last one or two scores which, with equal or supe- 

 rior feeding, lie en hand until Whitsunday, are 

 nearly altogether composed of that sort of stuff. 



And here the writer cannot help anticipating an 

 observation, which perhaps would have come in 

 better further on — that the difl'erence in expense 

 of keep, loss by death, and of ultimate profit, in 

 favor of well-bred and arrainst ill-bred stock, is so 

 great and striking on a sheep farm, that the apa- 

 thy of many etockmasters to the subject is incre- 

 dible. The reporter and his leading men, year 

 after year, have observed Ihe lamb of' a bad ewe 

 a mid or paley — the same lamb unfit to jzo out in 

 spring — the same beast brought in to make up for 

 sale in its last year — and after all this extra ex- 

 pense, sold as a sholt, at twenty per cent, under , 



* The smeaiing is an application of salve composed 

 of butter or oil mixed witii tar, turpentine, or some 

 other substance, tothe root of the wool, for the purposes 

 of killing vermin, protecting from wet, and increasing 

 the softness and the growth of wool. 



t There is a waste of manure dropped on the heather 

 land, but no remedy for this is known that is consistent 

 with the health andhardihooH of the young stock- 



