262 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY 6fr chap. Xllt. 



principal farmers, keep a few, principally for 

 the use of their own families ; and some, who 

 have a taste for that kind of stock, and conve- 

 nience for feeding them, keep more, and what 

 they do not use, they sell to the butcher. Some 

 gentlemen-farmers and others, follow the prac- 

 tice of purchasing annually in the spring, a few 

 scores of great ewes, or ewes with young, for 

 the most part of the black-faced kind. These 

 they lay on good pasture ; the lambs they dis- 

 pose of, in the course of the summer, to the 

 butcher, and the ewes at the end of the season. 



The old Fife breed is of a small size, the car- 

 case when fat, seldom weighing above 24 or 26 

 lib. tron. They are generally horned and white- 

 faced, and carry a scanty, coarse, open fleece. 



The Earl of Leven has a flock consisting of 

 about 300, which was originally of this kind. 

 But by crossing them with the Beckwell-ram, 

 has brought them to an astonishing degree of 

 perfection. Their weight is fully doubled, and 

 the wool greatly improved both in quantity and 

 quality, and sells usually at 2os. per stone. 

 His Lordship, some years ago, procured a Spa- 

 nish ram, with a view to the improvement of 

 the flock. The effect hts been, that the wool 

 is so much finer, as to bring the price 4 s. per 

 stone higher. I do not think, however, that it 

 has made any improvement upon either the size 

 or the shape of the animal, or bettered the qua- 

 lity of the mutton. 



