480 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK iv. 



breds, and with half-breds to produce three-part-bred lambs, and the 

 sheep obtained by this crossing are of splendid quality and of first-rate 

 fattening properties. 



The Border Leicester sheep of the present day have been mainly 

 made what they are through the use of Mertoun blood, for there is 

 hardly a flock of any consequence in the country which is not headed 

 by sires that were either bred at Mertoun or are descended from 

 Mertoun stock. The existing flock at Mertoun was founded by the 

 present Lord Polwarth's grandfather in 1802, but Wright in his famous 

 Tour in 1777 states that the Leicester sheep at Mertoun then were 

 of quite as high a quality as the sheep owned b}^ the brothers Culley at 

 Wark. Lord Polwarth has followed Bakewell's system of in-breeding 

 to an extent and with a success which is unequalled in the annals of 

 stock-breeding, for not a single sheep born outside the flock was 

 used in the flock for over thirty years. The flock, however, is divided 

 into several different families, and these are .carefully mated with 

 each other, so that the sires and the dams shall be several degrees of 

 consanguinity apart. Lord Polwarth has also made a point of watch- 

 ing how his best rams do when sold to head other flocks, and the best 

 of these are often bought back after several years' use in such flocks. 

 These rams, after living for a few years on different soil and in 

 other environments, return practically as new animals to the old stock. 

 The rams thus so closely bred are remarkably fine-boned stylish animals, 

 and when put to out-bred stock they beget grand animals, and almost 

 every prominent prize-winner at the present day is a direct descendant 

 of some Mertoun-bred sire. The Mertoun rams never fail to fetch 

 the highest price at the Kelso ram sales, where the best rams of the 

 breed are sold. In 1890 the Mertoun draft of thirty shearlings realised 

 the unprecedented average of 53 19s. 4d. The Messrs. Clark of 

 Oldhamstocks founded their flock over thirty years ago, and at the 

 Kelso ram sales their rams rarely fail to realise the highest average 

 next to that of Lord Polwarth. Among more recently-established 

 flocks, those of the late Lord Dalhousie, and of the Bight Hon. A. J. 

 Balfour, M.P., are very favourably known, on account of their high and 

 genuine quality. 



The old LINCOLN BREED closely resembled the old Leicester. 

 They had white faces and legs, forward loose shoulders, a heavy head, 

 with a large neck, and sinking dewlap ; the bones large, and the carcass 

 long and coarse ; the back long and hollow, with flat ribs, but good 

 loins, and a deep belly; the hind-quarter broad, and the legs standing 

 widely apart. The pelt was particularly thick, and the fleece consisted 

 of very long combing wool, of a rather coarse quality, weighing gene- 

 rally from 12 to 14 Ib. on the wethers, and. from 8 to 10 Ib. on the 

 ewes. The flesh was coarse-grained and inferior, but it frequently 

 reached the weight of 35 Ib. per quarter ; and fat wethers generally 

 averaged 25 Ib. This description, however, applied to the old and now 

 extinct breed of Lincolns. In the days of Bakewell and for a long 

 time subsequently, there was much jealousy between the new Leicester 



