SHEEP. 



be done with little trouble, and to great advantage. In 

 the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, an intelligent farmer, in 

 the panfh of Moffat, put Cheviot rams to his black-faced 

 ewes. In 1790 he fold the wool of the fhetp produced by 

 that crofs at 10/. the fix fleeces ; and the wool of his other 

 ftock of the black-faced kind, which went exactly on the 

 fame pafture, only at 6s. ^d. the feven fleeces. The flieep 

 thus produced were as healthy as his other ftieep, the car- 

 cafe not materially altered, and the weight of the wool in- 

 creafed a feventh part, and its price more than a third. 

 The farm on which they were is as high ground as almoft 

 any in Scotland. 



And the fheep which are at prefent known by the title 

 of Lon^ Hill Jheep, by the northern farmers, are a hornlefs, 

 white-faced, loofe-fhaped breed, having a coat of ordinary 

 fhort or fine wool, perhaps raifed by crofling, through time, 

 the old country breed with thofe of the Cheviot kind. 

 They are faid to be more tender than the fhort or black- 

 faced breed, but to anfwer well with good care and keep. 

 However, from the practice of milking ewes of this breed, 

 for the purpofe of making cheefe, being found to be pre- 

 judicial, it has lately been much left off by the belt theep- 

 farmers in thefe dillritls. 



The Dun-faced Breed or Variety. — This is a fort which 

 Culley fays has no horns ; the face in common of a dun 

 tawny colour ; the fize fmall ; the tail (hort ; the mutton 

 fine in texture ; the weight often only 6 lbs. or 7 lbs. the 

 quarter ; the wool varioufly llreaked and blended with dif- 

 ferent Colours, fome of which is very fine. He fuppofes it 

 to partake of the Spanifh breed, but it is not fo hardy as 

 the Cheviot breed. The mutton of this breed is excellent 

 in flavour. They are fuppofed by fome to have had a 

 Spanifh origin ; but they have been naturahzed, for a great 

 length of time, on the Grampian and other hilly dift;rids in 

 Scotland. 



The Shetland Breed or Variety. — This is a fmall breed, 

 and moiUy without horns ; but what more particularly dif- 

 tinguiflies it from other breeds, is the uncommon fmallnefs 

 and fhortnefs of the tail ; the weight per quarter from 7 lbs. 

 to lolbs. ; the wool very fine, and of various colours. 

 The breed is very hardy, but much too wild in its difpofi- 

 tion to be confined in iiiclofed pallures, and of courfe lefs 

 proper for the purpofes of the grazier. There is a fort of 

 this breed of flieep, which, according to Mr. Johnfon, 

 carries coarfe wool above, and fine foft wool underneath ; 

 and the flieep have three different fucceflions of wool an- 

 nually, two of which refemble long hairs rather than wool, 

 and are by the common people termed /orj zniifcudda. As 

 foon as the wool bcgi.is to loofen at the roots, which is 

 motlly about February, the hairs or fcudda fpring up ; and 

 when the wool ip cautioufly pulled off, the tougli hairs con- 

 tinue fatl, until the new woo] grows up about a quarter of 

 an inch in lenirth, then they gradually wear off; and when 

 the new fleece has acquired two months' growth, or there- 

 abouts, the rough hairs, termed fori, fpring up and keep 

 root, until the proper feafon for pulling it arrives, when it 

 is plucked off along with the wool, and is feparated from it, 

 at the time of dreffing the fleece, by an operation called 

 forfing. The fcudda remains upon the fl<in, as if it were a 

 thick coat, a protection again ft the inclemency of the 

 feafon. But the native or kindly breed, that bear the foft 

 cottony fleeces, according to Mr. Culley, are rather deU- 

 cate ; though the faft of their eating the fea-weed greedily, 

 when the ground is covered with fnow, and often durino- 

 long and fevere fnows, when they have little elfe to hve on', 

 feems to prove the contrary. Nature, he fays, feems to 

 have imparted to them a perfeft knowledge of the times at 



which this food may be procured ; for immediately upon 

 the tide beginning to fall, they in one body run direftly 

 down to the lea-ihores, although feeding on hills feveral 

 miles diilant from the fea, where they remain until the tide 

 returns, and obhges them to ftek their ufual haunts. They 

 are very hardy, and the wildefl of all the breeds of thefe 

 animals. 



But in refpeft to the wool of thefe beaver fheep, as they 

 are fometimes termed, it is fhort and open, and deflitute of 

 a covering of long hairs. Thefe fiue foft fleeces are hable 

 to be rubbed off during winter, or early fpring, which, it 

 is fuppofed, might be prevented, by clippmg the fheep in 

 the ufual way, inllead of the abfurd mode of pulling them 

 off, which tends to weaken the flieep, and decreafe the 

 length of the ftaple of the vi'ool. In regard to colour this 

 wool is various, a.s filver grey, which is the fineft and foftett ; 

 the pure 'while, which is mollly of the greatelt value for all 

 the purpofes of the fineft combing wool ; the Had, and the 

 mourat or bro-wn, which are very little inferior : the whole 

 of the fofteft texture, fit for the fineft manufaftures, and 

 in fome inflances rivalling even Spanifh wool, than which it 

 is fomewhat longer in the itaple, and not fo elaftic. And 

 it is ftated to have been manufadtured into ftockings of ex- 

 traordinary finenefs ; and that the fleece attached to the 

 fliin affnrds a fur of great value. This breed was formerly 

 a native of the higher parts of Aberdeenfhirc, and in the 

 diftridts to the northward of it ; but it has been fince much 

 crofted, and it is now moftly confined to the Orkney and 

 Shetland ifles, the pureft breed being to be found in the 

 latter. The number of the beaver fheep in thefe ifles 

 amounted to ninety thoufand, fome years fince ; and five or 

 fix of them are faid to be capable of being fed with the food 

 required for one Englifh fheep. In the Weft Riding of 

 Yorkfhire, Mr. Beaumont is faid to have made a trial of 

 thefe fheep ; the refult of which was, that they did not fat, 

 but grow, which fhews that their fize would improve with 

 that of the foil : their wool alfo improved in length. But 

 the original old breed of the Highlands arc faid to partake" 

 of the nature of the goat and deer ; their coat confifting of 

 a fort of fur or down, covered by long, ftraight, rigid 

 hairs, like thofe of the beaver, rather than wool ; tail fhort, 

 flender, tapering, not lai'ger than that of the deer or goat, 

 and thinly covered with itrong, filvery hairs ; the face co- 

 vered with fleek hairs, like the face of the deer, with his 

 prominent eyes. They are tame, delicate of fram.e, and 

 requiring to be houfed in winter : their flefh of high venilon 

 flavour. The breed is found in its original purity, in the 

 central Highlands, on the fouthern banks of Strath Tay, 

 and between thofe and Strath Brand ; and on the banks of 

 Loch Nefs, in the northern Highlands, as well as in the 

 Shetland iflands. 



The Merino or Spanifh Breed or Variety. — In this breed 

 of fheep the males have horns, but the females are without 

 them. They have, according to lord Somerville, white 

 faces and legs ; the body not very perfeft in fhape ; rather 

 long in the legs ; fine in the bone ; a degree of throatiiiefs, 

 or produftion of loofe pendulous fl<in ui'.der the neck ; and 

 the pelt fine and clear ; weight, when tolerably fat, per 

 quarter, in the rams about 17 lbs., in the ewes 11 lbs.; 

 the wool very fine. It is a breed that is afferted by fome 

 to be tolerably hardy, and to poflefs a difpofition to fatten 

 readily ; but others maintain the contrary opinion. 



His majefty took the lead in the introdudtion of the Merino 

 breed into this country, and his firit flock was imported in 

 1792 ; but other nations feem to have got the Itart in this 

 refpeft, as Sweden had them even in 1723, where they have 

 fince greatly increafed ; and in France, Germany, and fome 



other 



