74 



F A U ISl E R S ' REGISTER, 



the price of the lot, merely on account of the base j the purpose of realizing the greatest possible value 

 blood which flowed in ils veins. ' '^ -■ -^i - i i 



"When the month of June has brought its in- 

 terminable day, the vvedder hogs yield their first 

 fleece. They are then caih'd dinnianlf? ; are sent 

 back to the deer hair ; and when i( \W\\fi in August, 

 and the fuie weddcis have jrone souih, ihey are 

 sorted into their wedder lierdiniis, to replace the 

 waygone lot of the las^t year's evve hoirs ; and al- 

 ter two years' stay there, they travel, in their turn, 

 to the feeder. 



JEioei=. — The ewe lamb follows a course some- 

 what different Iroui the wedder. At the delivery 

 of the sale sheep, it [idis into ihe finest grass on 



from Sutherland mountain ground. 



The reporter has ?een tups very showy to look 

 at from a disumce. and full of wool ; but on ap- 

 proaching them more nfariy, the observer must 

 have been struck, with how the feet were quiie 

 under ilie carcass, the breast and twist much nar- 

 rower than to all appearance was compatible with 

 so broail a carcass ; with a hollowness or flatness 

 hetwi.xt the eyes, some bristly hairs on the fore- 

 head, and very likely an oiler to produce a stubby 

 horn ; of which the point, like a small nipple, is 

 just discernible where lliat ornament grows on 

 horned sheep ; and, on the whole, the head turns 



its herding — the paleys in Morvich— the worst j out to be larger than at first sight it was thought 

 bred fidl-gmwn lambs in the wedder herding — itobe. Touch him, and you will find aflat neck, 

 and the ciioice lambs in the ewe herding, made narrow hard shoulder, small tail, flat rib, and the 



vacant by the cast of the sale sheep. The inten- 

 tion of this arrangement is, that the keeping lambs 

 may, as liir as possible, be at once hailed to thai 

 herding where they are to be settled as ewes ; the 

 deaths, &c. be beaten up from the best bred of the 

 eecond chost'n lambs and paleys ; and those 

 least fit for breeding be yelled off for sale — the 

 smallest in the ewe herdinga, by being protected 

 by mean? of a contrivance called " brecks,,"* and 

 the largest and strongest by being sent to the her- 

 dins No. 3, which abounds in those plants best 

 calculated lo give increase of bone. 



The coMirivaiice of yellina or breecliing a cer- 

 tain numl)er ol" ewes in e;;ch herding, besides the 

 advantiige it offers in the improvement ofthe breed, 

 answers im excel!ent piupuse at lambin^-time ; for 

 the yell ewes beintr all sorted ofl' the herding a 

 lew days belbre the lamt>infr begins, a greater 

 abundance of feed is left to briufr nulk on the ewes, 

 and thereby to put layer on their lan)bs — an ar- 

 ticle which it becomes the policy of the store- 

 farmer never, if he can, to lose until he quit the 

 sheep to the ft'eder. 



These ewe flocks are tended, as n)rmerly ex- 

 plained, in three double herdincs, and one smaller 

 or single herding ; and it was also observed, that 

 one of these double herdings is cleared out annu- 

 ally, to receive the choii-e or keeping ewe lambs. 

 The single herdins yiekis a third of its number 

 annually, and receives from the second lot of ewe 

 hogs its proportion of young slock. By this con- 

 trivance, the ewes can be sorted into three kinds: 

 what approaches to tenderness is sorted down to 

 the single herding. No. 8; what is open in the 

 staple, or inclined to be |)inny in the fleece, are 

 hailed below the double shepherd's house; what 

 is bad skinned, above it. By keeling, or marking 

 with red chalk, the hardiest tups to No. 8, the 

 saddest skinned to the under end, and the loftiest 

 .and most open skinned, to the upper end of the 

 double herding, the whole flocks are kept in that 

 medium, betwixt the two extremes, vvhirh every 

 Btore-liirmer knows to be essentia! to good farminor, 

 and to the sale of that quality of stuck and wool 

 that brings the greatest sxun of money out of the 

 market. 



Tups. — In treating of the wedder sheep, allusion 

 was made to the necessity of possf-.-ssiriL' well bred 

 Clieviot eheep : this, in the writer's very hum- 

 ble opinion, is a condition absolu'ely re()uired for 



* Apiece of coarse cloth sowed on across the root 

 of the tail, and about six inches down each hip oo 

 either side of the tail. 



back, where the ribs strike out, hard as a deal 

 board ; he has very little layer or wool along the 

 back, but (if in condition) exhibits a mass ofgreaso 

 and wool mid-way down the rib; while he will 

 clip at a show from ten to fifteen pounds of wool, 

 of the quality of hemp. This class of sheep is the 

 parent of sholts; his progeny will pay nothing to 

 the breeder, feeder, or butcher, compared with the 

 truly bred Cheviot sheep. 



Upon which then Ihese three questions arise — 

 Where is this truly bred Cheviot sheep to be foundl 

 How chosen? And how shall his blood be 

 best infused into the flock? These are questions 

 which the reporter will answer with diffidence, 

 being conscious that many breeders are much 

 more c.npable Ihan himself to answer them satis- 

 factorily. Still the Soiiely having done him the 

 honor to call for his report, he will send his opinion 

 and his practice together, and will feel too happy 

 to have them nmendetl m any particular. 



1. — The breed of Cheviot sheep from which he 

 has chosen, and would again choose his stock 

 (were ihai to do), feed on the Scotch side of the 

 Cheviot hills, and along the tract of high and stony 

 moorland liirms which stretches out betwixt that 

 mountain ranurc and the source of the Teviol : on 

 the English side there has been, generally speak- 

 injr, too much of Dishley blood applied, to have 

 left in the aniinal the thrift, courage, and consti- 

 tution necessary for the wastes of the county of 

 Sutherland. West of the Teviot, again, it is 

 within the memory of man since the stock was 

 crossed in, from the ovls aries rustica, or black- 

 faced sheep — a cross, of which the first is the best, 

 as is the case in all crosses betwixt animals so en- 

 tirely different from each other. 



The spirited farmers ofthe western district have, 

 for many years, been importers of tups from the 

 east border; and the circumstance has not, per- 

 haps, in every case, been favorable to the flock 

 fi-om which the imporintiori was made. When 

 this trade began, the west-country breeders fancied 

 sheep with very fine bare heads, flat clean bones, 

 and a short fine fleece, to counteract, as quickly as 

 possible, the opposite qualities of their own flocks. 

 In order to suit the market, the tup-breeders pre- 

 served only the finest of their young store. But 

 the west border genilemen had not gone through 

 many gener;ifions, when they found that thecrosa 

 had been too quick: a reaction followed, and, to 

 the surprise of the tup-sellers, the top was turned 

 to the bottom, the bottom to the top ofthe fair, and 

 nothing could be sold but tups of coarse quality, 

 , The tup-breeders turned with the tide — a few to 



