4S FIELD AND FERN. 



blackfaced ewes, two years old wedders, and double- 

 milled ewes. Some of the blackfaces from Argyle- 

 shire and Perthshire are very good indeed ; cast ewes 

 have made as high as twenty-two shillings, and the 

 two-year-old wedders are picked np principally for 

 the coarser hill land in Cumberland and Yorkshire. 

 The blackfaced ewes go to Derbyshire and Lanark- 

 shire, and many of them to West Lothian, to 

 be crossed Avith a Leicester. The cattle come on 

 the Wednesday ; and what with sm^all West Iligh- 

 landers and country-cross breds, there will some 

 years be little short of twenty thousand. They are 

 mostly yearlings and two-year-olds, and are spread 

 all over Scotland (move especially Dumfriesshire), 

 Yorkshire, and the Midlands. The second fair, or 

 " Snowy Doune,^^ comes off on the last Wednesday 

 of November, and is simply for cattle culls and sheep 

 shots, which go to Perthshire and the North. 



Sheep are very seldom shown at Hallow Fair, ex- 

 cept w hen business has been slack at the first Doune, 

 but the show of cattle will sometimes range from 14,000 

 to 12,000, nearly all shorthorns. Once upon a time, 

 the Angus men used to sell here; but now they, as 

 w^ell as other farmers south of Aberdeen, are fain to 

 come and make up their Avinter lots from the two- 

 year-olds and stirks, for which this fair rather enjoys 

 a specialty. The trade at the Big Wednesday is very 

 much governed by the Hallow. This fair was for- 

 merly held at Gorgie farm, near Edinburgh, but last 

 year it was on the Fat Cattle Stance. It is not 



