RAM. 



vipon fhall not be paid, unlefs the ram in eoiitraft, or anothir 

 as good, impregnate the ilipulated number ot ewes. If, 

 throucrii accident or inability, part only be impn-gnatej, a 

 proportional part of the price is abated. If he die while at 

 ride, the lofs falls on the letter, whether his death hapj)ens 

 through accident or negleft ; no cafi:, he underllands, hav- 

 ing yet been othervvife determined. It is likewife under- 

 flood, that the hirer fliall not fuffer him to ferve any other 

 than his own ewes ; and of thefe, no more than a Ilipulated 

 number, which is proportioned to the age or ability of the 

 ram, and the mode of ufmg him. And further, that if a 

 grazier hire a valuable ram, at a wedder-gettcr's price, 

 (which is not unufual at the wane of a fealon, when valuable 

 rams happen to be unlet,) it is underftood, or rather agreed, 

 that lie ihall not rear rams from him ; a condition which 

 may frequently be advantageous to both parties. The 

 letter pockets five or ten guineas, which otherwife he might 

 not have had ; and the hirer, by fufTering himfelf to be 

 " tied down," as it is termed, gets a greater improvement 

 in his ftock than othervvife he could have got for the fame 

 money. He adds, that the time of paying the money is, he 

 underllands, unfixed; feldom, he believes, until after the 

 ewes have brought proofs of the ram's efficiency, or after 

 the lambing feafon. 



It is obfervcd, that with regard to the prices for letting 

 rams by the feafon, that from the firll letting to the year 

 1780, the prices kept gradually rifing from j^xtow yJi7//«^j- 

 to a guinea, and from one guinea to ten. In 1780, Mr. 

 Bakewell let feveral at ten guineas each ; and what is rather 

 inexplicable, Mr. Parkinfon of Quarendon let one, the fame 

 year, for twenty -fi-ue guineas, a price which then allonifhed 

 the whole country. That from that time to 1786, Mr. 

 Bakewell's Hock rofe rapidly, from ten to a hundred guineas ; 

 and that year he let two-thirds of one ram (referving one- 

 third of the ufual number of evi-es to himfelf) to two prin- 

 cipal breeders, for an hundred guineas each ; the entire fer- 

 vices of the ram being rated at three hundred guineas. This 

 excellent breeder making that year, by letting twenty rams 

 only, more than a thoufand pounds ! and that, fince that 

 time, the prices have been Hill rifing. Four hundred guineas 

 have been repeatedly given. The above breeder, this 

 year (1789), makes, he underllands, twelve hundred 

 guineas by three rams, (brothers he believes,) two thou- 

 fand of feven, and of his whole letting full three thoufand 

 guineas ! And that he now lets nothing under twenty 

 guineas ; a well-judged regulation, which Mr. Marfhall 

 thinks will probably be beneficial both to himfelf and his 

 cuftomers. 



It is added, that, befide this extraordinary fum made by 

 Mr. Bakewell, there are fix or feven other breeders who 

 make from five hundred to a thoufand guineas each. The 

 whole amount of monies produced this year, in the midland 

 counties, by letting rams of the modern breed for one feafon 

 only, is eftimated, by thofe who are adequate to the fub- 

 jed, Mr. Marfhall fays, at the almoft incredible fum of ten 

 thoufand pounds. He knows that it is a popular idea, efpe- 

 cially of thofe who, living at a diftance, have only heard of 

 thefe extraordinary things, without having an opportunity 

 of coming at fatts, that the extravagant prices which are 

 talked of are merely nominal ; the principal part of the 

 money being returned, the aftual prices given being fmall, 

 in proportion to thofe held out. This, however, is, he be- 

 iieves, and on the belt authority, an erroneous idea. At 

 the firft fetting out of the high prices, there might be fome 

 tranfaftions of that nature ; but if ever they exiited, they 

 have ceafed long ago. Mr. Bakewell at prefent has the 

 came, at leatl, of being parfimonious, even to the fhepherds 



of the flocks on which his rams are employed. His highelV 

 prefent, he underllands, is five /hillings ; if the price be 

 under fifty guineas, only half-a-crown. But the enormouf- 

 nefs of ihcle prices may be explained, he thinks, on other 

 grounds. The high prices are not given, he fays, by 

 gra/.icrs, for the purpofe of getting wedders, as grazing 

 flock ; but by ram-breeders, for the |)urpole of getting 

 rams, to be let to graziers : the hlghejl being given by the 

 principal breeders only, not for the purpofe of getting rams 

 to let to graziers as wedder-getters, but for that of gettin-r 

 rams, to be let out again to inferior tup-men, as ram- 

 getters. 



It is further flated, that the graziers' prices run, even 

 now, from one to ten guineas. He has not heard of more 

 than ten guineas being given, by a mere grazier, for a ram, 

 for the fole purpofe of getting grazing flock : five or fii 

 guineas is tlie common price. And fuppofing he gives the 

 higheft price, ten guineas, and that the ram ferves a hundred 

 ewes, (fome fingle, fome double,) tlic cxpcncc of getting 

 amounts to no more lluin two fliiliings a head ; which is iii- 

 confiderable, compared with the difference between a well 

 and an ill grazing fheep, between a flieep that will get as 

 fat at two years old as another will at three ; or, in other 

 words, which will, at two years and a half old, fetch ten 

 or fifteen fhillings more than his comrades of another breed, 

 but of the fame natural fize, and going in the fame paflure, 

 or feeding on the fame fort of food. In refpcdl to the middle 

 prices, as thofe from twenty to fifty guineas, they are, under 

 the prefent circumftances, equally rcconcileable, he thinks, 

 to common fenfe. If a breeder, who gives fifty guineas, 

 rear ten tolerable rams fit for the grazier's ufc, and let them 

 at five guineas each, he brings himfelf home, even the firfl 

 feafon of letting, befide having the rams for another and 

 another feafon, and befide a general improvement in his 

 ftock for the future. And thofe who give the higher 

 prices, as one to two hundred guineas, have, or ought to 

 have, proper bafes to build upon, fuflicient flocks of well- 

 bred ewes ; in which caftf, they have a fair chance of pro- 

 ducing ram-getters, worth, while the prefent fpirit of im- 

 provement lafts, twenty to fifty guineas a feafon. And 

 that with refpeft to the very high prices, they are given by 

 a few firft -rate breeders, who are playing a high game, run- 

 ning a hard race, for the pride and profit of being a leader, 

 when Mr. Bakewell is not ; a contention which may laft as 

 long as Mr. Bakewell, and be at once an honour to his 

 genius, and a reward of his fervices. 



In refpect to the treatment of rams after letting, it is 

 remarked that the breeders of rams, as well as of bulls, find 

 it expedient to reduce them from the cumbrous ftate in 

 which they are fhewn, prcvioufly to the feafon of employ- 

 ment ; the old rams, in particular, being frequently returned 

 upon their hand, non-efficient. Hence, as tiiey are let, they 

 are transferred to private paftures, and moderate keep ; it 

 being a pretty general rule not to fhew a ram after he is let, 

 or contrafted for to a perfon. 



In the fending out let rams, the ufual time of beginning 

 is the middle of September ; the means of conveyance, car- 

 riages of two wheels with fprings, or hung in flings ; fome 

 of them being large enough to hold four rams. In thefe 

 they travel from twenty to thirty miles a day ; being fome- 

 times fent, in this way, two or tliree hundred miles, ard 

 fometimes more. 



It has been obferved by the fame writer, that the manner 

 of ufing thefe rams has lately received a very great improve- 

 ment. Inftead of turning them loofe among the ewes at 

 large, as heretofore, and agreeably to the univerfal praftice 

 of the ifland, they are kept apart, in a feparate paddock or 



fmall 



