Agrlculiure of Scotland. 



107 



It is thus in the great additional extent of turnips^ and improved 

 pasturage^ that the extensively-increased productiveness of the 

 modern system eminently consists. Accordingly it is in the article 

 of live-stock that the wonderful change is chiefly remarkable. 

 There is here the same difficulty in obtaining a correct amount of 

 the number of live-stock maintained within the district at the early 

 period of this comparative view : nor is it^ there is reason to think, 

 in increase of numbers, so much as in weight or quality, that the 

 great difference would appear, had we right data to form a complete 

 estimate. In the first epoch the Cheviot breed of sheep pre- 

 vailed throughout the entire district, saving, perhaps, a few of the 

 cross of the indigenous breed already alluded to, kept upon im- 

 proved lands; and it appears, from Dr. Douglas's Survey,* that 

 even in 1796 there were no more than five or six small flocks 

 of the Dishley breed kept by gentlemen in rich enclosures, and 

 by one or two farmers in the arable district." Now, the whole 

 of the district under review, excepting a very inconsiderable 

 portion in the highest ridges of one of the parishes, is possessed 

 by this excellent breed of sheep; and the pains and expense 

 bestowed of late years in their culture and improvement have 

 justly established a character for this part of the country for its 

 breed of Leicesters, which is surpassed by that of no other district 

 in Scotland ; and it is not, perhaps, saying too much to add, that, 

 in this respect, it would successfully vie with many of the highest 

 note in the southern parts of the kingdom. 



It may be right to give a sketch of the mode of management and 

 disposal of this stock, here so celebrated. On nearly all farms of 

 any considerable extent what is called a breeding-stock of these 

 sheep is kept, and the system pursued is generally the following. 

 From the ewes three successions of lambs are taken, the dams 

 being sold off at the close of their third breeding-season, or when 

 four and a half years old. In general, the Avhole produce of these 

 ewes is retained upon the farm on which they are bred, a propor- 

 tion of the ewe-lambs, when gimmers, commg in to take the place 

 of the old ewes sold in each year. The wedder-lambs, again, are 

 disposed of as fat, many of them immediately after being deprived of 

 the first fleece, and the remainder after being fed on turnips, in the 

 winter or spring of the second year. Not unfrequently, however, 

 upon such farms where a large proportion of turnips cannot be 

 raised, the whole wedder-lambs, and sometimes part of the ewe- 

 lambs, are disposed of at weaning-time ; and those ewe-lambs kept 

 beyond the number required to maintain the complement of the 

 year are sold when gimmers, generally at about eighteen months 

 old. These young sheep, being thus so early matured for the 



* General View, p. 167, 



