F A R Al E li S ^ R E G 1 S 1' E R 



75 



uii extreme degree; tUciny slopped aliort at ihi' 

 certos denique fines, where ;l;ooi1 indiingemeiit 

 eiidij : and, certaitjiy, the iighl sujH, and the must 

 beautil'ul specimens ul well-bred Cheviots, are only 

 to be Ibund in iliis quarter. 



II. — As to the choice of a tup. Alier Mr. 

 George Culley's description, which is in the liands 

 ot every breeder*, it would be presumjjtuous in the 

 writer of this report to say more on that subject 

 than respectCully lo point out the shades of ditl'er- 

 ence betwixt Mr. Culley's picture and ihe(iuali!y 

 thought to be suitable to tlie county ol'Suiiierland. 



1st. His head ought not to be so very thie and 

 small, but the nose should be lull and aquiline 

 from the tip (where the orifice is jet black) lo the 

 Ibreliead. The brow should be inclined to be long 

 and narrow, covered with short, wiiitef, Hal- 

 growing, swirling Jiair. This cover ought to be- 

 gin at the tip and extend over the whole head to 

 the back of the crown, close behind the ear, where 

 it is cut oti'at once by the circle ol'clean, soft, thick- 

 BBt, and rather boardy wool, which terminates the 

 fleece. 



2d. The junction of the neck lo the head must 

 not be so very fine, nor the t0|) of the shoulder too 

 broad, but a rapid increase of strength from the 

 top of the neck to the withers or junction of the 

 shoulders ; ihe top of the shoulder ought lo be to 

 the touch, as if the flesh on the chin overtopped the 

 shoulder. This flesh or layer should be deep in 

 quality and well covered with close-set wool, to 

 cover the back broadly and efli-ciually to the 

 cleaving on the tail head, where the spme term- 

 inates in a broad tail, set on so low that the eye, 

 in returnin^^ along the back, iancies there is a 

 gradual rise from the tail to the neck, and a little 

 swell on the loin. 



3d. The skin ought to be by no means thin, 

 and the wool should be thickly planted on it, fine, 

 soft, slightly inclined to be boardy, hanging toge- 

 ther in regular staples from root to surface, elastic 

 to the gripe, and covering the belly, and also the 

 quarters as tar as the mutton extends ; al the 



* Mr. Culley's description of the ram: — 'His head 

 should be fine and small, his nostrils wide and expand- 

 ed his eyea prominent and rather bold or during, ears 

 thin, his collar full from the breast and shoulders, but 

 tapering gradually all the way to where the head and 

 neck join, which should be very fine and graceful, be- 

 ing perfectly free from any coarse leather hanging 

 down; the shoulders broad and full, which must, at 

 the same time, join so easy to the collar forward and 

 chin backward as to leave not the least hollow in 

 either place ; the mutton upon his arm or Ibiethigh 

 must come quite to the knee ; his legs upright, with a 

 clean, fine bone, being equally clear from superfluous 

 skin and coarse hairy wool fi-om the knee and hou^h 

 downward; the breast broad and well formed which 

 which will keep his forelegs at a proper wideness ; his 

 girth, or chest, full and deep, and instead of a hollow 

 behind the shoulders, that part, by some called the Ibrc- 

 flank, should be quite full ; the back and loins broad, 

 flat, and strait from the waist; the ribs must rise with 

 a fine circular arch; his belly strai,'!;ht; the quarters 

 long and full, with the mutton quite down to the hough, 

 which should neither stand in nor out ; his twist deep, 

 wide, and full, which, with the broad breast, will keep 

 his four legs open and upright ; the whole body cov- 

 ered with a thin felt, and that with fine, bright, sort 

 wool. — Cullcy on Live Stock, p. 103 and 104. 



t Many very excellent Cheviot sheep have a gray 

 color on the nose, which gets darker near the tip. 

 Others have a slight tinge ol Ifetnon color on the face. 



I termination of which it is cut off at once by the 

 clean while hair that covers the legs. 



The whole animal exhibiiing greater strenfrth, 

 daring, and agility, than Mr. Culley's descripTion 

 brings before the mind. 



III. In breeding tups, the general practice in 

 the highlands, alier selecting the tups thought to 

 be the best, is to shed oH' from each hirsel of ewea 

 a certain number of what are considered the 

 "truest," and most perfectly formed ; to put one 

 tup to each lot so shed oH, and set apart; to bid 

 the shepherd tend this lot during the " riding" 

 season fceparate from the rest of the flock, and 

 from the produce to select tup lambs. It many 

 years ago occurred to the writer, that in this me- 

 thod there were many delects : first, the separation 

 intended was not effectually maintained — during 

 the long moonlight nights of November and De- 

 cember the ewes got back to their accustomed 

 haiff, and the tups mingled in the flock; — secondly, 

 it caused a great additional disturbance to the flock, 

 both atridmgiime, and at the subsequent lambing, 

 cutting, clipping, and speaning, to say nothing of 

 the loss occasioned by the fox, eagle, cat, martin, 

 raven, &c., all of which could be more cheaply fed, 

 in some other way than on tup lambs; — thirdly, 

 in the course of his observation it occurred to him 

 that a great proportion of the ewes so set apart in 

 the sever'al hirsels lormed no proper cross to the 

 tup employed in that particular hirsel, but possess- 

 ed a tendency to the same delt>cts, and lo tliesame 

 perfections possibly wiih the tups; consequently, 

 the delects on both sides were aiiijravated, and 

 the very perliections, by increasing to excess, be- 

 came delects; — and, lastly, as all breeders know that 

 animals in very many cases, and especially where 

 crossing has taken place, breed back not to the 

 immediate parents, hut possibly to the great-great- 

 grand-dam or sire ; it must follow that, without a 

 particular genealogy of tup and ewe, the object 

 intended to be eflected by any particular union 

 will often turn out contrary to the wishes and ex- 

 pectations of the master. It was resolved to make 

 a careful selection from the elile ot" particular fa- 

 milies in his own flock ; to purchase, at whatever 

 expense, a few of the elite of certain ancient and 

 well-bred flocks in the east border; to form them 

 into one "selected hirsel" for the breeding of tups; 

 to place them under his own immediate notice, to 

 suidy the particular tendency of each family to- 

 wards a deficiency or excess in each particular 

 " point ?" by judicious crosses betwixt the various 

 families to produce stock more perfect than either 

 dam or sire ; and through this stock to infuse the 

 best border blood into his flocks. The experiment 

 wrought like a charm, and in a few years it lilted 

 up the reporter's stock to a new position, both at 

 the tup shows, and, what is more lo the purpose, 

 in the market where the stock and wool are annu- 

 ally sold. 



The most choice lots of the county of Suther- 

 land wool and sheep are generally sold in the 

 " great annual market," held at Inverness, in the 

 second week of July. At this market farmers 

 assemble from all pans of ihe highlands ; they 

 are met by wool-staplers and sheep-buyers from 

 the south of Scotland and from Yorkshire, and 

 iransactions to a very great amount take place 

 without show of stock or sample, resting entirely 

 on the character held in the market by the owner 

 and his goods ; and it is very seldom that one 



