392 
Farm Reports. 
lords are sadly remiss, and very little is done for them. Sheep 
drains, sheep stells, and March fences have done much, but still 
more is expended on 40 acres of wet low land than would put 
a sheep walk in form. Corn, beans, and bran with hay may 
enable the flockmaster with a heavy purse and a willing heart to 
tide through the dreary time till verdure begins, and nature 
dethrones art on the hills, but still mountain hay must be the 
sheet anchor. Go in for mountain hay, and the storms of winter 
may drift up the valley, and tempests whistle over the hills 
in vain." Again, "partial feeding is worse than no feeding,, 
as the sheep listlessly wait on it ; and no longer, in the absence 
of fresh weather, search after regular food. Giving it in handfuls- 
may do for calm weather, but sheep hecks will alone prevent 
the wind from pilfering, and save one third of the hay." His- 
recommendation was that every hirsell of 30 score should have 
four enclosures of a few acres each, with sheep houses and hecks,, 
which should be limed and cut two and two, in alternate years, 
and this plan has been pretty generally followed. 
Each of Mr. Aitchison's ewes is expected to have four crops 
of lambs before she joins the cast. The worst gimmers are kept 
back when the places of the cast ewes are to be supplied, but 
the rest, which are kept in the general hirsell, all reckon among 
the ewe flock in their second autumn. The proportion of 
couplets is very small on hill farms, and " the shepherd is better 
wanting them." It requires a fine tupping season to bring them 
in any quantity, and hence Mr. Aitchison has the largest propor- 
tion of them in the milder climate of Penchryst, where the 
ewes can keep longer in condition to meet the ram. In fact, on 
Penchryst every fifth or sixth ewe has couplets, and they can 
nurse them with the aid of enclosures, but on his other farms 
Mr. Aitchison is glad to give the weaker lambs to low land 
farmers, to put on their half-bred ewes. In most seasons there is 
a slight majority of ewe lambs ; and if a ewe nurses a couplet 
she has generally one-third less wool. Some flockmasters wean 
their lambs in August, and others let them suck on, except when 
they happen to be following a cast ewe. As the grass decays, 
the milk leaves the ewe, and she has none in her later than 
October. About 70 ewes is a good allowance to a ram on a 
hirsell, but if there is a select lot of ewes, and the following 
is not difficult, one ram gets his five or six score. A ram has 
been known to leave ten score in lamb, when they have been 
put to him by half at a time. They all come in season on the 
hills within 18 days, and not generally later than the 24th of 
November, and the height of the lambing is the last week in 
April. A hardy ram that will follow his ewes well on difficult 
ground is of the highest importance ; and Mr. Aitchison has 
