106 
Relative Profits to the Farmer from 
especially, they must fare better than the feeder, dear as mutton 
is. Mr. Willison, Parish-Holm, Lanarkshire, who keeps over 
20,000 sheep on several grazing farms in different Scotcla coun- 
ties, says, " I have found sheep-breeding more profitable than 
feeding." His grazings, however, are in the west of Scotland, 
where the climate is somewhat wet and unfavourable for sheep- 
feeding. Mr. R. Stratton says, " to breed sheep economically 
there must be dry sound pastures or downs, so that the ewes may 
be wintered at small cost. In many districts it costs 30s. to keep 
a ewe from November 1st till April 1st. As a rule, this must be 
a losing game." Probably it must ; but where such an outlay 
is inevitable, a breeding-stock should give way to a feeding. 
Generally, breeding-ewes of the earlier maturing varieties are 
kept on farms where the pastures carry them on until January. 
A few turnips and some corn or cake are given during the first 
three months of the year. This is the common food where 
lambing begins about the end of February. But, of course, when 
the lambs commence to fall in January, the hand-feeding must 
begin earlier, especially if the weather in December is inclement. 
In most parts of the country breeding-ewes are wintered under 1/. 
a head, excluding prize ewes or animals breeding Showyard stock. 
Several of the correspondents speak favourably of the results 
obtained from the introduction of a moderate sheep stock on farms 
previously allotted to cattle. This was, however, where the soil 
had been thoroughly drained and where the climate was toler- 
ably dry. There are instances of Leicester sheep having been 
tried and given up on account of damp climate and soft soil. 
Mr. Drew abandoned Leicesters at Merryton because of the 
climate ; and Mr. John Ralston, reporting from the south-west of 
Scotland, relates that with a half-bred flock of sheep he was a 
third short of his revenue from dairying, which he was obliged to 
suspend for a few years. 
The south-western counties of Scotland, like the corresponding 
parts of England, are not very favourably adapted f6r sheep- 
rearing or feeding, especially feeding. They are better suited 
for dairying and horse-breeding. About Hamilton, where Mr. 
Drew's farm is situated, the registered fall of rain, I observe from 
statistics kindly supplied by Mr. Buchan, secretary of the Scottish 
Meteorological Society, is not much greater than in some parts 
of Roxburghshire and the eastern counties of England, where 
sheep do well. The gauge at Auchenraith, near Hamilton, last 
year showed a total of 29-38 inches. At Melrose the rainfall 
last year was 30'42 inches ; at SwafTham, in Norfolk, it was 
about 30 inches. In West Hereford the rainfall for the eleven 
months ending November 30th amounted to 54*40. At Lissan. 
Cookstown, Ireland, the fall for the year was 40'23 inches ; while 
