452 
Sutherland Reclamation. 
to winter all his sheep at home, and it was not till the autumn 
of 1878 that he ever had occasion to send any of them to be kept 
for him in the south. 
When the sheep are drafted off in October, the lambs of that 
year are for the first time reckoned as hoggets. No lamb dying- 
before that time is reckoned among the losses. To find the per- 
centage of loss the number on the farm in October must be 
compared with the number lost in the 12 months preceding 
the shearing-time in June of the following year. The losses of 
course occur chiefly in the winter. 
At West Garty there are 150 acres under the plough, and 30 
acres of turnips are annually grown for the sheep. A failure of the 
crop last year, for the first time, made it necessary to send most 
of the wether hoggs to be wintered in the south. The land on 
this farm Avill, no doubt, compare favourably with the majority 
of farms where it is the rule, and not the exception, to send 
away a part of the stock for wintering ; and one would expect the 
evidence of deterioration to be less marked here than elsewhere. 
During the 20 years comprised in the return there has been a 
great rise in the value of the sheep ; if there were no counter- 
acting influences we should naturally expect that, as sheep 
become more valuable, greater care would be taken, and that 
consequently the annual loss would be less ; the contrary 
is, however, the case. If the 20 years are divided into four 
periods, it will be found that the average loss for the 
5 years ending 1879 was 91 per 1000. 
5 „ „ 1874 „ 63 „ „ 
5 ,, ,, 1869 ,, 55 ,, ,, 
5 „ „ 1864 „ 62 „ „ 
It will be seen that while the number of ewes kept does not 
vary much from year to year, the number of hoggs fluctuates 
greatly with the character of the previous winter and spring. 
The year 1877 appears to have been the worst lambing season 
of the whole period, but I learn from Mr. Hadwin that that of 
the current year was still worse. In spite of an expenditure 
of 700/. on hay, only 400 lambs were obtained, instead of the 
800 that are expected in an average season. 
This is the only return given in full for a long series of years, 
but it will be interesting to compare with it other returns given 
for shorter periods. jMr. Richard Rutherford, of Kildonan, 
returns the average loss upon his farm for the four years ending 
1878 as 77 in the 1000. Mr. Blake gives a return for 3 years 
of the farm of I'alnakiel, near Cape Wrath, which he occupied 
before he took charge of the home farm at Dunrobin. Balnakicl 
is almost surrounded by the sea, and Mr. Blake states that the 
