96 THE SHEEP. 



the fleece. It formerly used to be employed for the making 

 of cloths ; but, from the extensive employment of the Merino 

 wool of Saxony and Spain, it is now scarcely employed for 

 this purpose, and is prepared by the process of combing in 

 place of carding, for the coarser manufactures. The atten- 

 tion of breeders, too, having been mainly directed to the fat- 

 tening properties of the animal, the wool has diminished in 

 fineness, though it has increased in length and weight. Its 

 quality varies somewhat with the pastures, being finer where 

 the shorter grasses prevail, and coarser where the herbage is 

 rough and heathy. 



The management of the Cheviot resembles that of the 

 Black-faced Heath Sheep ; but as, for the most part, they 

 occupy a lower range of mountains, better means exist of sup- 

 plying them with food during the inclement season of winter. 



They are suffered to range over the grounds assigned to 

 them, and their artificial food is only subsidiary to the natural 

 herbage of the farm. It is supplied chiefly during falls of 

 snow, and consists either of the hay of the cultivated grasses 

 or clovers, where this can be obtained, or is the produce of 

 the swamps and perennial meadows of the farm. When tur- 

 nips can be produced, these likewise are supplied at the fit- 

 ting times. The breeder of these Sheep, as in the case of 

 the Black-faced Heath Breed, is not necessarily the person 

 who feeds them for ultimate use. He rears them to a cer- 

 tain age, and then transfers them to those whose farms enable 

 them to bring them to the required maturity. This consti- 

 tutes the great traffic between the farmers of the higher and 

 lower country, and is a fitting division of labour and employ- 

 ment. Sometimes, indeed, the breeder of these Sheep, by 

 possessing low and cultivated ground, or otherwise, is en- 

 abled to combine the practices of rearing and fattening ; but 

 the essential destination of the higher farms is the rearing 

 and not the fattening of stock, and the two occupations, 

 though they may be combined, are essentially distinct. The 

 stock often passes through several intervening graziers and 



