HAWICK TO MOSS PAUL. 209 



aionrishing pasture to sheep during the early spring 

 months. The consequence is that the sheep are re- 

 duced lower, and shed their fleece more freely, when 

 the abundant herbage of spring returns. The mosses 

 of the other part of Roxburghshire prevent the sheep 

 from being so reduced in condition, as they do not 

 grow so high up the hill, and are therefore available 

 in a severe spring. Sheep in Teviotdale are espe- 

 cially subject to foot-rot; but the iouping ill or 

 trembling between the old and new grass is not 

 known on the Cheviot Hills, or near the source of 

 the Tweed and the Clyde. 



Smearing the sheep with tar has been given up for 

 years_, and fish oil is objected to as gilding the wool, 

 and hence Gallipoli or olive oil is most used, except 

 ■where poisonous dips have to be resorted to. The 

 gimmers are generally put to the tup_, but many of 

 them do not nurse their own lambs, and the cast 

 «wes after four crops are for the most part passed 

 over to Cumberland or Yorkshire through dealers. 

 Teviotdale is rather higher than Evresdale in its 

 sheep rent, and the Roxburghshire sheep-farms 

 generally vary from £200 to £1,500, at from 7s. to 

 10s. 6d. per sheep. In the North of Scotland it is 

 computed to take 2 to 2^ acres to keep a sheep, 

 whereas li to II will suffice in Roxburghshire and 

 Selkirkshire. 



The Lowlands are not a wedder country, and save 

 Elliot of Hindhope and Pringle of Hindley, nearly 

 everyone parts with his wedder lambs. The High- 



2 p 



