The  Lonh. 
117 
In  -these  instances  the  ewes  had  rather  better  quarters 
than  the  average. 
But,  even  in  the  case  of  show  stock,  sheep  are  sent  on  to 
the  Fell  for  a short  time.  This  seems  to  straighten  them  up, 
and  the  Fell  also  appears  to  provide  an  antidote  to  foot  rot. 
A pure  bred  Lonk  ewe,  well  known  to  the  author  of  this 
article,  attained  her  twenty-first  year  this  spring  (1909).  She 
has  had  a total  of  thirty-five  lambs,  all  of  which  lived  to  “ eat 
grass.”  Nine  of  these  were  triplets,  and  she  had  her  last 
lamb  in  June,  1906.^ 
The  Weight  of  Wool. 
A fleece  from  a good  wether  hogg  should  weigh  7 to  9 lb., 
and  that  from  a good  “ gimmer  ” hogg  6 to  7 lb.  ; whilst  a 
ewe’s  fleece  will  be  between  4^  and  6 lb.  All  these  weights 
refer  to  washed  fleeces.  Sheep  that  are  well  kept  produce 
considerably  more  than  this  ; for  instance  one  year  four  prize 
gimmers  clipped  12  lb.  each. 
Crossing  the  Breed. 
From  the  article  in  the  Farmer's  Magazine  already  quoted 
we  get  an  account  by  the  late  Mr.  Jonathan  Peel  of  his 
experience  in  trying  to  get  an  improved  hill  sheep  by  means 
of  cross  breeding. 
“ It  seemed  so  easy,”  he  writes,  “ and  so  natural  to  correct  their  faults 
and  make  good  their  shortcomings  by  crossing  them  with  sheep  possessing 
those  good  gifts  which  nature  had  denied  them. 
“With  a portion  of  the  flock  a cross  was  taken  with  the  Southdown. 
It  was  intended  to  return  the  produce  to  the  Lonk  tup  and  to  be  guided  as  to 
the  future  by  the  result.  The  experiment  was  thoroughly  tried  out  but 
failed.  It  was  repeated  with  the  Shropshire  downs  ; it  failed  again.  The 
observation  of  Mr.  Rowlandson  that  ‘ the  crosses  with  heath  sheep,  having  in 
view  the  improvement  of  the  progeny  as  heath  sheep  only,  have  proved  decided 
failures  ’ is  fully  confirmed  by  my  own  dire  experience.  If  greater  relative 
width  had  been  given  to  the  loin,  if  the  general  outline  of  the  animal  had  been 
somewhat  improved,  it  was  at  a great  and  grievous  cost.  Everything  else 
was  sacrificed.  The  produce  was  small  and  stunted,  too  tender  to  maintain 
themselves  upon  the  moor  or  to  grow  the  wool  necessary  to  defend  them 
against  the  weather.  . . .” 
Lonks  have  gone  as  far  as  Sutherlandshire  and  the 
Grampian  ranges  between  Perthshire  and  Argyllshire  in  some 
instances  as  a wool  cross.  The  produce  of  crosses  of  this  kind 
exhibited  at  the  show  of  the  Highland  Society  held  at  Stirling 
in  1864  were  much  admired,  the  wool  being  manifestly  better, 
while  the  form  of  the  animal  was  not  altered. 
The  “ draft  ” ewes  from  the  Fell  farms  are  sold  to  go  into 
the  lowlands,  where  they  are  crossed  with  Leicesters  and 
Wensleydales.  Lincolns,  Cotswolds,  Southdowns,  and  Shrop- 
shires  have  also  hit  pretty  well,  but  they  have  seldom  been 
1 This  ewe  died  in  August,  1909. 
