28 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Leicester is the important race, and the fertile lands around 

 and east of Carlisle also are stocked with the breed. A 

 favourite cross for producing a hardy and prolific ewe flock is 

 that of Border Leicester rams mated with Cheviot ewes, and 

 these again put to " Leicester " rams give a strong and kind 

 progeny, which may be brought out fat at a year old at from 

 sixteen to twenty pounds per quarter. Such ewes are well 

 adapted both for the richer lands which form the valleys, 

 and the fells which enclose them. They are a frugal race, 

 requiring but little water, and thriving upon the poorer 

 pastures of the mountain limestone and the millstone grit. 

 These sheep fatten easily without hay, and do not require so 

 much indulgence in the form of cake and corn as some of our 

 south country Down breeds. Oats and pea straw, with a 

 pint of home-grown oats, and plenty of white turnips is all 

 they require in winter, and in summer they have nothing but 

 grass. The fault of the " bred ewe " or pure Leicester is that 

 she makes herself too fat upon good land and hence the 

 Cheviot cross or the Cheviot twice crossed is preferred for the 

 outlying lands as hardier and better adapted for poorer soils. 

 Many holders of hill farms who also occupy farms in more 

 favoured districts keep two flocks, one of Leicesters, which 

 they breed at home, and a Cheviot or half-bred flock on the 

 uplands, which they work by judicious crossing. The lambs 

 are reared on the hill sides, and change hands at St. BoswelJs, 

 St. Ninian's, Lauder, Stagshawbank, Brough Hill, and other 

 great north-country fairs. They are then put on turnips or 

 finished. In other cases the breeder shifts them from the 

 higher grounds, and " turnips " them himself, thus securing 

 the profits of both breeder and grazier. The still higher and 

 more inhospitable ranges are stocked with the hardy Cheviot 

 or the still more frugal Black-faced or heath-breed, and thus 

 all the districts of that varied and picturesque part of the 

 kingdom find suitable sheep stock. 



