176 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



stream and jump them in, repeating the process three times, not 

 handling any of them. The water must be clean. Shearing 

 is generally done on a stool of wood or of turf, the shearer sitting. 

 The sheep is laid on its back until the belly is shorn, then the legs 

 are tied with a cord or thong, and the sheep laid on its side and 

 shorn from head to tail, or vice versa, finishing along the back- 

 bone. The fleece is rolled up and tied with its neck or tail wool, 

 and the sheep is pitch-marked before leaving the stool. After 

 shearing, there is often much trouble to the shepherd in " mothering 

 the lambs," and it often happens that some lambs never find 

 their mothers and are then weaned. The weight of wool runs from 

 4 Ib. to 5 Ib. per fleece, lightest from the older ewes, and heaviest 

 from the yearling ewes. Lambs are not shorn in a Black -faced 

 flock. After shearing, little trouble is given the shepherd until 

 weaning time, but in the meantime he is often busy cutting and 

 drying " peats " for fuel, and making hay for a coming winter. 



Weaning. About September the lambs are weaned and sold 

 direct off their hill The top wether lambs are usually sold to a 

 butcher or wholesale dealer, kille'd and sent to our city markets. 

 The seconds are usually sent to an auction sale, where they are 

 bought by lowland farmers for feeding, coming to the butcher 

 later on. The very top of the ewe lambs are kept for stock and 

 run on with their dams, never being removed from the hill. The 

 second ewe lambs are also sold to lowland farmers, and kept for 

 stock purposes, often mated with Wensleydale and Border-Leicester 

 rams, producing cross lambs of quick-fattening qualities and 

 well-known feeders. 



Drafting Flock, About October the five-year-old ewes are 

 drafted out. All with mouths and udders correct are sold in one 

 lot, others with a tooth out or any other fault are sold as such, 

 but a Black-faced ewe carries her teeth until she is seven or eight 

 years old. The writer has often taken three crops of lambs from 

 draft ewes,, afterwards selling them to the butcher, one very strong 

 ewe nursing three pairs before being sold. The whole flock is 

 usually dipped before the draft ewes are culled. Then again in 

 about three weeks ; but in all cases dipping should be done before 

 the rams are let out, as much handling after is not good. An 

 average crop of lambs would be 75 per cent., or 300 lambs. In a 

 very favourable year, with a few twins, one may have about a 

 lamb for each ewe wintered. From aged Black-faced ewes the 

 writer has had as many as 50 per cent, twins, but these have to 

 be better kept both before and after lambing. 



Prices in 1913 for Black-faced sheep were : Draft ewes up 

 to 32s., usually 22s. Top wether lambs, 18s. to 20s. Seconds, 

 10s. to 13s. Top ewe lambs acclimatised to the hill would be 

 JJOs. to 32s. Seconds sold off 12s. to 14s. Wool 6Jd. to 8d. per Ib. 



