398 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 30,1883. 
ably extended itself through the Highlands and mountains of 
Scotland, penetrating also to the Orkney and Zetland Islands, 
where it has to a great extent displaced the original and more 
inferior breeds. “ This breed of sheep,” observes Professor Low, 
“ possesses characters which distinguish it from any other in the 
British Islands. It is of the smaller races of sheep with respect 
to the weight at which it arrives, but is larger and more robust 
than the Zetland, the Welsh, and the ancient soft-woolled sheep 
which it displaced. The male and female have horns, very large 
and spirally twisted in the male, but sometimes disappearing 
in the female. The limbs are lengthy and muscular, but the 
shoulders are not so low as in the Welsh breed, nor are the 
posterior limbs so long. The face and legs are black, and there 
is a tendency to this colour in the fleece; but there is no 
tendency to the brown or russet colour which distinguishes the 
older fine-woolled races. The fur is shaggy and the wool coarse, 
in which respect it differs from that of ali the other mountain 
breeds of the country. It is of Medium length, and weighs about 
3 lbs. the fleece when washed. The sheep are very hardy, and 
capable of subsisting on the coarsest Heaths.” They do not, 
however, like the sheep of Wales, prefer the summits of the 
mountains, but feed wherever pasturage can be obtained; nor 
are they so nice in the choice of herbage as the South Downs, 
Merinos, and other races peculiar to countries yielding the finer 
grasses. But although wild and singular in their habits they 
are not so restless as the mountain sheep of Wales and other 
districts, but can be induced to remain m enclosures when 
sufficient food is supplied to them. We have brought them from 
Perthshire into more southern latitudes and milder climates. 
They remained quiet under ordinary shepherding within the 
hurdles. They have also made good weights for age and size; 
but with respect to the qualify of their mutton, they have 
certainly lost their venison flavour, so predominant when taken 
from their native districts. 
The ordinary weight of the wethers, when killed at the age 
of about four years, is 15 lbs. per quarter, but they will fre¬ 
quently exceed this when fed and fattened with artificials in 
the same manner as the long-woolled sheep are fed in some of 
the enclosed arable lands, and getting also a full quantity of 
l'oots and hay in addition, but especially when they have been 
fed in this way from an early age, they have, in such cases, 
been known to reach very much heavier weights. Although the 
mutton is not so delicate as that of the Welsh breed or the 
South Downs of England, yet it is more juicy, has more of the 
venison taste, and is preferred to every other kind by those who 
have become accustomed to it. It is this mutton which is prin¬ 
cipally consumed in all the larger towns of Scotland. An im¬ 
portant property of this breed is adaptation to a country of 
Heaths, in which respect it excels all others. It is this property, 
as much as its hardiness, that has rendered it so suitable to the 
heathy mountains, where it is accclimatised, and where it finds 
subsistence beyond the ordinary range of other sheep. The 
animals feed on the loftiest mountains, up to the very verge 
where the Heaths give place to other plants of the higher latitudes. 
Feeding much on the shoots of Heaths, they also find subsistence 
in the times of frost and snow better than any other breed to be 
found in the kingdom. The mothers are hardy nurses, and are 
able to bring up their lambs even when they themselves have been 
exposed to severe privations. Sometimes lambs of this breed 
are born with short fine wool. It may, therefore, be possible to 
establish a short and fine-woolled type in place of the present 
coarse-woolled variety. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—Horses are now principally engaged in carting the 
crops to stack and barn ; the former is now, however, the most prevalent 
practice, because if the stack or stacks are made in the field where grown, 
or near to it, the labour saved at the important and busy period of 
harvest is great. In the early districts the crops of Oats, Barley, and 
Wheat have been stacked in good condition, and the best practice is now 
considered to be, both as regards the stacking and threshing, to build the 
stack round and in pairs, so that both may be threshed without a 
removal of the threshing machine. It is also an advantage to build the 
stacks of a size which can be built and topped up in half a day in anticipa¬ 
tion of adverse weather, for in the building of large stacks, if rain occurs 
when the rick is only half built, more or less injury is sure to be done 
to both straw and grain. A favourable time has lately occurred for 
cutting and making into hay the second growth of Clover and Grasses. 
We have made some good hay of the second growth of Clover and Italian 
Rye Grass, and have also ploughed under for manure in preparation for 
Wheat another portion of the mixed grasses, and it will be important 
to ascertain the result whether that ploughed in proves equally or more 
valuable than the hay crop if sold with all its attendant expenses and risks. 
The ploughing-in Clover of the second growth is by no means a new idea, for 
in certarn districts it has been in use for many years for some lands, especially 
those situated at a considerable distance from the homestead and the 
manure made therein ; it has, however, fallen into disuse, especially 
on farms where a large number of sheep are kept, and has been revived 
particularly by those farmers who hold the opinion that sheep do not 
pay when compared with the growth of a large acreage of sale crops, 
grown under a system of artificial manuring, accompanied by the 
ploughiDg-in of green or root crops as manure. 
Hand Labour .—On maqy and various large farms in the eastern and 
north-eastern corn-growing districts of the kingdom hand labour has 
undergone a considerable change and revolution ; for instead of paying 
the men by the acre by a money payment with other allowances for beer 
or cider, it has now become more customary to pay the men, especially 
where all the improvements in a reaping and self-binding machine are 
available, but particularly on the largest farms and occupations, by 
letting everything connected with the harvest work at fixed prices per 
acre—such as so much for cutting, tying, stacking, raking, in fact every 
kind of work including thatching the ricks, and allowing the men free 
use of the farmer’s horses, waggons, reaping machines, horse rakes, and 
other implements as part of the contract. The advantages to both farmer 
and the labourers are considerable, and will be found in a great degree 
by expeditious transfer of the crops to barns or stacks, for loading the 
grain on to waggons, carting it, and building into ricks, can be 
performed in nearly half the time usually required when the men are on 
day pay, more particularly when we consider that the men are not so tract¬ 
able under orders or such willing workers on day work as formerly, nor 
will they do so good a day’s work for a day’s pay. It is, therefore, 
almost compulsory to have an arrangement with the harvest labourers in 
which their own interest guides them in their undertaking. Hoeing the 
root crops must not be neglected, and to save some of them from 
becoming stunted in growth they may be dragged across the drills, or, 
what is better, use the horse hoe across the drills, setting the shares at 
such a distance as may leave plenty of plants, so that they can be easily 
singled as hand labour by women or lads, and thus secure their continuous 
growth. 
Lire Stock .—Cattle are still dear, also sheep, and we know various 
persons who from their experience find that at such figures as now prevail 
sheep do not pay sufficient profit for feeding, and they are now asking- 
themselves a very proper question—-If they do not pay why should we 
keep them ? can we not dispose of our roots for the dairy cows, fatling 
bullocks, &c., and plough in the residue for manuring the land ? At the 
same time the fact of sheep-breeders keeping sheep to manure the land 
chietiy ought to induce them to consider whether manure cannot be 
obtained or purchased cheaper than sheep can furnish it under a system 
which, if it does not lead to profit, must be commercially wrong from every 
po'nt of view. All the cold meadow lands under the influence of the 
late hot weather will yield grass most abundantly for the dairy cows 
and store cattle. Swine now will be required on many farms to run in 
the stubbles, Bean and Pea eddishes, where they will get a fair living 
for a short time, especially if on their return to the farmyard for their 
night lodging they get some nourishing liquid or ripe roots, such as 
Cabbage and Carrots, but the all-important point to be considered is, 
Have we got for the purpose the best and largest breed of pigs as the 
stock of the farm ? Many farmers are satisfied with the small white, 
the Sussex, or other small breeds, but our own practice tells us that the 
large white Yorkshire in cross-breeding with the Berkshire are much the 
most profitable, as yielding the greatest weight for age. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Seeds for Foreign Birds (A. Henly ).—Dry white millet in the husk ; 
also the different varieties of foreign millet, such as Indian, Algerian, and 
Senegal, are suitable for the smallest ornamental Finches. The larger 
varieties should be given Canary seed as well as millet. Much information 
as to birds is to be found in Poultry , published weekly at this office, price lc£ 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
B 
s 
« 
1883. 
August, 
<£> c3,__ 
20) Oi Q) 
5 -m’- 0 > 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
P . 
O 
+» d 
or' 
So 
«4-l _ 
§ 
3 o<h 
r-H 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Sunday .19 
Monday.20 
Tuesday. 21 
Wednesday .. 22 
Thursday .... 23 
Friday.24 
Saturday .... 25 
Inches. 
30.294 
30.177 
30.194 
30.183 
30.299 
30.297 
30.217 
deg. 
61.4 
59.8 
67.3 
70.6 
62.7 
64.3 
63.0 
deg. 
58.6 
57.7 
62.0 
66.0 
56.9 
58.0 
59.3 
N. 
E. 
N.E. 
E. 
N.W. 
N. 
N.E. 
deg. 
62.6 
61.7 
62.7 
63.5 
63.0 
62.9 
63.0 
deg. 
73.4 
80.6 
82.7 
76.6 
75.3 
76.6 
76.2 
deg. 
55.3 
46.9 
68.3 
59.3 
52.0 
48.6 
51.1 
deg. 
90.9 
117.5 
119.5 
110.4 
113.2 
117.8 
112.3 
deg. 
48.5 
37.2 
54.3 
54.2 
47.5 
43.2 
44.® 
In. 
0.023 
29.237 
64.2 
59.8 
62.8 
77.3 
53.1 
111.7 
47.1 
0.(23 
REMARKS. 
19th.—Fine generally, misty at times. 
20th.—Morning fine and bright, afternoon dull and oppressive. 
21st.-—Warm and close. 
22nd.—Hazy in early morning, fine with slight shower in afternoon, 
23rd.—Clear, warm, and fine. 
24th.—Very fine and warm. 
25th.—Fine and wann. 
The general clearness of th« sky and almost entire absence of rain hare led to a very 
unusually large range of temperature. The difference between the highest and lowest on 
each day has averaged 24 - 2°, and on the JOth reached the very large amount of 33 ' 7 ° 
The maxima have averaged 77‘3°, which is higher than in any other week of this or 
Inst year.—G. J. SYMONS. 
