THE CHEVIOT 13KEED. 



97 



feeders, before it is fattened for ultimate use. In general, 

 the Cheviot Sheep are fattened at an earlier age than the 

 Black-faced Heath Sheep, partly on account of the greater 

 precocity of the animals, but chiefly on account of the supe- 

 rior treatment which they receive when young. The Cheviot 

 breeder may sell his Sheep in the first year when hoggets, 

 but very generally in the second year, either when they re- 

 tain their fleece and are still hoggets, or after they are 

 divested of their fleece and are shearlings, or, in the lan- 

 guage of the northern farmer, dinmonts and gimmers. They 

 are rarely fattened when shearlings, the usual period being 

 after they have lost their second fleece, and are wethers. The 

 ewes, after having borne lambs for several years, generally 

 three, are sold, and their place supplied by the younger 

 females reared on the farm, which at that time are in the 

 autumn of the second year, and about nineteen months 

 old. 



The rams are usually admitted to the ewes about the 

 20th of November, so that the season of lambing may com- 

 mence in the early part of April. One ram is assigned to 

 sixty ewes. 



The ewes, during the period of gestation, feed on the 

 natural pastures of the farm, but, on the falling of heavy 

 snows, receive a supply of hay, which may be spread upon 

 the surface. But the Sheep have a wonderful faculty of 

 collecting their food, even when all the ground is covered, 

 by scraping away the snow with their feet, and they prefer 

 this natural food to the dried provender. When turnips as 

 well as hay are produced on the farm, the ewes receive them 

 likewise during falls of snow ; but it is especially at the 

 period of lambing, and during its continuance, that this spe- 

 cies of food is supplied. 



When the period of lambing arrives, all the vigilance of 

 the shepherds is required. Sometimes the ewes are so en- 

 feebled by want of food, and the inclemency of the weather, 

 that they have not milk sufficient to nourish their young, and 



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