jillipiuuUSS 
NEW YORK. OCTOBER 9, 1886 
PRICE FITE CENTS. 
«2.U0 PER YEAR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1886, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
THE CHEVIOT SHEEP. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Home of the Cheviots; their origin? old-time 
Spanish sheep; Cheviots "excelled by none; 
equated by few;" excellent for wool and 
mutton; sections best adapted to them in 
this country; mountainous North Caro¬ 
lina; weights of wool and mutton; 
HE Cheviot sheep inhabit the 
range of hills or low mountains 
on the southern boundary line 
of Scotland, and the notheru 
part of England. It is a cold, 
bleak region, but has long beeu 
occupied by a race of hardy in¬ 
dustrious farmers who have 
trouble upon their owners, or defeat and dis¬ 
aster upon those reckless ruffians who “came 
down like a wolf on the fold” to rob and harry 
and kill. The sheep of the Cheviot hills lived 
then on the mountain pastures, which afforded 
rich, nutritious, but sparse herbage, well cal¬ 
culated to develop a useful animal, having a 
good fleece and fine-flavored mutton. It was 
said by the shepherds that their sheep origin¬ 
ally came up out of the sea, and this tradition 
is believed to have originated from the fact 
that some of the ships of the Spanish Armada 
which was sent to conquer England in the days 
of Phillip 11 of Spain,and “Good Queen Bess” of 
England, were wrecked on the coast of the 
hill country, and the sheep carried for the 
supply of fresh meat esca|ied from the wreck 
aud swam ashore. The sheep of Spain at that 
time were the best in the world. The Merinos 
had descended from flocks which were re¬ 
nowned when Spain was a part of the Roman 
Empire, as they furnished the fine wool of 
by the union of Scotland and England, the 
hill farmers have greatly improved their 
sheep, and the Cheviot breed is now “excelled 
by none and equaled by few” of the English 
and Scotch breeds. The Cheviot is a large 
sheep, as large as the Cotswold, but a better 
mutton animal aud has finer wool and a closer 
fleece. The wool furnishes the material for 
the soft, durable clothing goods known as 
“cheviots,” which are so popular in Englaud 
and the United States, and is not too long for 
carding in the common country mills for the 
manufacture of flannels, cassimeres, jeans, 
and blankets. The mutton, of course, is af¬ 
fected greatly in quality by the food; but 
where, in America, similar conditions can be 
secured, the sheep will yield meat as highly 
flavored and as tender and sweet as in their 
native home. It is a mountain sheep, and 
Northern New England, Western Pennsylva¬ 
nia, the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade 
Ranges, especially. and the Southern Mouu- 
droughts; and the soil, rich in potash, pro¬ 
duces a varied herbage of wild pea vines, short 
grass, nutritious plants and undergrowth, and 
the very best of all the cultivated grasses and 
clovers, as well as roots; and where the short, 
mild Winters permit outdoor grazing, with 
the finest and well sheltered ranges in the open 
grassy woods, excepting for two or three 
weeks in January, these sheep find everything 
they require aud enjoyed in their native home. 
The engraving (Fig. 3Sli is a likeness of a 
two-year-old ram bred and owned by Mr. 
William Curry, Hartwick, Otsego County, 
N. Y. He received the first prize in his class 
at the State Fair at Albany in 1885. He weighs 
-00 pounds, and is an excellent specimen of the 
breed. My pure yearling ram weighs 180 
pounds, and a pure-bred ewe now nursing her 
lamb weighs 100 pounds. A spring lamb 
weighs 70 pounds. One of my rams shear¬ 
ed 11 pounds last year and 8}^ pounds this; 
the ewe 7% pounds. The custom here being to 
mi 
CHEVIOT RAM. Fig. 381. 
made the rearing of sheep aud cattle their chief 
business. Two hundred yeans ago aud more, 
when wars disturbed the peace of the two 
countries, this border-ground was t he scene of 
constant raids, forays, aud encounters between 
the partisans of the political leaders on either 
side, who made politics an excuse for “lifting” 
cattle and sheep. The excellent cattle and 
fat sheep of the hills even in those days, had a 
reputation which too often brought loss and 
which the imperial purple robes were manufac¬ 
tured aud which were more costly than silk then 
brought in caravans all the way from China. 
It was from Spain that the excellent- Cotswold 
sheep were brought to England as a present 
from the Spanish to the English King, and 
the Cheviots coming from the same sources 
were, beyond a doubt, as excellent as 
the other Spanish breeds. Of late years, 
aud since quiet came to the border 
taiu region from West Virginia to Alabama 
are all well adapted for these sheep, and will 
furnish them with precisely the pastures aud 
climatic conditions most suitable Cor them. 
A moist climate produces a soft-, lustrous wool, 
and naturally affords continuous nutritious 
herbage. Here, in the Southern mountain 
region, whore the rainfall is GO iuehesin the 
year, and descends in gentle showers at short 
intervals, aud where consequently there are no 
shear twice a year, my flock were sheared Aug. 
30,and the weights of the fleeces were: ram, 5}^ 
pounds 'five months’ wool); yearling ram, 
4 pounds; ewe, 4 pounds; spring lamb, 3>i 
half-bred spring lambs, 2's to “A pounds; and 
three-oaonths’-old lambs yielded two pounds to 
the fleece. 
The Cheviot crosses well upon the common 
native sheap. and the best of the half-breeds 
can scarcely be distinguished from the pure- 
