A Hill and a Half- Hill Farm. 
389 
" sheep must have variety ; they like, bite, and bite about." 
The highest elevation of the farm is 1900 feet on the top of 
Gretmoor, which "marches" with the Liddesdale hills, but this 
higher hirsell is very much aided by the cotton-grass on the 
lower part of it, which enables the sheep to get the benefit of it 
in times of difficulty. It is this growth of cotton-grass at a low 
altitude which is so rare in the Border counties, and gives the 
more fortunate Sutherland shire men such a pull. Taking the 
herbage generally on Penchryst and Menzion, it is nearly as 
rich as Eskdale, but it has not the same succulent juices for 
lambs. 
The farm of Glenkerj-, on the banks of the Temma Water, 
a tributary of the Ettrick, in Selkirkshire, was purchased bv 
Mr. Altchison about eight years ago. It lies about 22 miles 
from Hawick, and is a more grassy farm than any of the others. 
It has a greater proportion of boggy land than Menzion or 
Penchryst, and its 1700 acres carry about sixty score of ewes. 
Like Menzion, it lies high, and has a wide circle of bog-land at 
the base of its hills. The bogs have all been open-drained at 
a depth of 15 to 18 inches, at the rate of a penny per rood. The 
herbage is very much after the character of Eskdale Moor, which 
is not far off it, but that fine lea-ground, which puts ewes into 
condition, and abounds at Menzion and Penchryst, is wanting. 
It is more strictly a lamb-farm, as the rich and early bog-grasses 
which follow draining produce rich milk, and bring the lambs 
along. Like Menzion, Glenkery suffers very much in a snow- 
storm, and calls for great preparations during the summer months 
in making hay to meet a bad season. 
Stelshaw, the farm which Mr. Aitchison holds under Sir 
Frederick Graham, in Newcastle, lies, on the contrary, so low, 
that a snow-storm never visits it, so as to do any permanent 
injury. Hence its hirsell of 26 score causes, comparatively 
speaking, very little anxiety. 
A Border shepherd will generally have the charge of thirty 
score of ewes ; but so much depends upon locality that, on some 
parts of a farm, forty score are quite as easily managed. During 
snow-storms, and in the lambing season, which lasts for three 
weeks, the shepherds always require a lad to help them. They 
keep their own dogs, but the lad is the subject of arrangement. 
Their wages consist of forty-five ewes and their produce, grass 
for a cow, and sixty stone of meal. It is, in fact, a flock within 
a flock, as these ewes run marked with the rest, and go off with 
their produce in the regular annual cast. In the North High- 
lands the shepherd generally gets paid in cash, and this is 
gradually becoming the custom on the Border. Their houses 
are invariably so placed that they may be as near to their 
