Farm-Prize Competition, 1880. 
579 
The ewes lamb in April. The age to which the Herdwick 
ewe will continue to breed and make a good mother is 
astonishinsr, considerinjr the hardness of her fare and the climate 
of the hill, " Nine months winter, and three months cold 
weather," is Mr. Mounsej's description of the climate ; and he 
says he often keeps ewes till they are ten or twelve years old. If 
the drafts he gets yearly to add to his flock are good, three crops 
of Lambs can be taken from them, and sometimes more, as the 
ewes improve for the first two years. The prices vary very much. 
Last year ewes cost from 13s. Qd. to 225., but they are generally 
higher than that. 
The lambs are dipped at the washing-time of the ewes, that is 
about June 24th, or as near as the weather will permit ; and both 
ewes and lambs are dipped again about August 10th. Cooper's 
dip and soft-soap are used for these summer dips, and they save 
the sheep from maggots, which they are very liable to in August 
and September. About the 25th of October they are again 
dipped, and this time with brown grease melted and Cooper's 
dip. This operation costs about 2\d. a sheep. The bath 
should be 80°, or the grease does not penetrate to the skin, and 
the sheep look badly the whole winter after, if the grease is 
sticking on the wool. 
At my April visit Mr. Mounsey had been unfortunate enough 
to lose some nine or ten ewes with a complaint to which these fells 
are subject. It had been described to him as " enteric fever." The 
sheep are seized with a trembling fit, jump in the air, and are 
soon dead. In Scotland it is called the " louping ill," and it is 
probably caused by some deficiency in the soil or herbage.* 
Otherwise the health of the flock during the winter had been 
remarkably good, and in February Mr. Mounsey informed us 
that he had only lost two sheep on the fell in the entire winter. 
About seven score ewes are drafted from the flock every year. 
They are treated in the same way as Mr. Leathes'. Put to a 
big Lincoln tup, they are sold soon after lambing, together with 
their produce, or before lambing if possible. 
The whole of the shepherding on this farm is done by Mr. 
Mounsey and his son, a boy of about 15 or 16. At lambing- 
time another and younger lad also helps, and the boys spend 
their days on the mountain, and their nights at the farmhouse up 
there. A knowledge of the whole flock is thus early inculcated, 
and all ordinary cases of parturition are successfully undertaken 
by these youngsters. To find a boy of 14 the accoucheur of a 
mountain flock was to me a surprise. But it only indicates 
* I noticed in my report of his farm, p. 574, that Mr. Leathes attributed it to 
■want of lime. 
2 p 2 
