4i8 



SHEEP 



The Cheviot as a wool producer is only fair. The fleeces lack 

 weight, although having very satisfactory quality, the wool bring- 

 ing a price equal to any of the medium class. Twenty-five 

 Cheviot breeders give the average weights of fleeces in their 

 flocks as ranging from ? to 1 1 pounds per fleece for rams, and 

 6 to 9 pounds for ewes. Wallace states that a good average 

 clip for ewes is 4^ to 5 pounds of washed wool. Formerly 

 Cheviot fleeces appeared somewhat open and long, and the breed 

 has ignorantly been referred to by some as a long wool, whereas 

 it is a true middle wool. In American flocks the fleece is being 



bred to be more com- 

 pact and heavier, with a 

 length averaging as near 

 four inches as possible. 

 Cheviot wool is valued 

 by buyers, and in scour- 

 ing tests at the Michi- 

 gan Experiment Station 

 the wool of this breed 

 shrunk less than that of 

 any other. 



The prolific character 

 of the Cheviot is above 

 average. The author has 

 secured figures concern- 

 ing 228 ewes which in 



one season dropped 353 lambs, approaching one and one half 

 lamb per ewe. The ewes are good mothers and produce as 

 a rule ample milk for the lambs. 



The hardiness of the Cheviot is one of its strong characteristics. 

 For generations raised on the hills, rarely seeing the inside of a 

 shed or barn, summer or winter, it has from very force of circum- 

 stances developed into the hardiest of the middle- wool breeds. 

 The lambs are vigorous from birth and seem well suited to severe 

 conditions of environment. On their native hills Cheviots, as a 

 rule, receive no grain unless they be rams or show sheep. 



The cross-bred or grade Cheviot has much merit as a mutton 

 producer. The use of Border Leicester or Lincoln rams on aged 



FIG. 195. Cheviot rams, the first-prize pen at the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England Show, 

 1900. Owned and exhibited by John Elliott, 

 Under Hindhope, Jedburgh, Scotland. Photo- 

 graph by the author 



