THE SHEEP. 
21 
THE BLACK-FACED HEATH BREED. 
and artificial shelter can be supplied, the condition of these mountain flocks is in a corresponding degree less precarious; but, 
generally, they are placed in situations which subject them to the evil of frequent destitution. 
When the season of lambing arrives, the ewes are often in a very emaciated condition; but such good and hardy nurses are 
these mountain Sheep, that they are able to bring up their young under privations which few other Sheep could contend against. 
The shearing of the Sheep takes place about the beginning of July. The ewes, as well as the other grown Sheep on the farm, 
are driven to a river or pool, and made to leap from the bank and swim across. The same care is rarely bestowed on washing 
these wild Sheep as in the case of the finer breeds. In a few days after being washed they are shorn. After the middle of 
July, or about three months from the birth, the lambs are separated from the mothers. This is done simply by removing them 
to another part of the farm. In a short time they forget one another, and the milk of the dams ceases to be secreted. It was 
formerly the universal practice to milk the ewes for six or seven weeks, or even more, after the lambs were weaned. This practice 
is now considerably disused in the districts where the management of Sheep is the best understood, it being found that the profit 
from the milk is rarely compensated by the disturbance of the flock, and the exhaustion of the ewes previous to the perilous 
season of winter. 
The lambs on being weaned become, in the language of farmers, hoggets or hogs. The wether hogs may then be disposed 
of, and such of the ewe hogs as are not to he retained for the purpose of supplying the place of the old ewes, which, after having 
borne lambs for three or four years, are to be disposed of. After the lambs are weaned, such of the ewes as have borne the proper 
number of lambs are selected, and sold in the course of the autumn. When the young Sheep are not disposed of in the first 
year, they are kept until the second year, and sometimes until the third or fourth years. Their treatment while on the farm is 
the same as that of the ewes. 
A practice exists in the case of these mountain Sheep, the utility of which is proved by long experience, of anointing the 
skins previous to the months of winter. The substances used are tar and butter, prepared by boiling the butter and tar together. 
The proportions used vary in different districts. In some places, six pounds of butter and one gallon of tar are used for twenty 
Sheep, and in others the quantity of tar is larger. The period of smearing is the end of October or beginning of November. The 
method is to separate the wool by the finger, and spread the ointment longitudinally from head to tail, so that the whole body 
shall be covered. The purpose served by the process is to remove insects and cutaneous diseases, and to defend the skin from 
wetness. It is peculiarly beneficial in the case of this breed, whose fur is less close and fine than that of any other Sheep. The 
effect, however, is to diminish the value of the wool, by staining it with the colouring matter of the tar, which renders it less fitted 
for receiving the brighter colours in dyeing. But it increases the weight of the fleece, and conduces in so great a degree to 
the health of the animals, by rendering them less liable to be injured by the coldness and humidity to which they are exposed, that 
whatever doubts may exist of the expediency of the practice in the case of other mountain breeds, experience shows its importance 
in the case of this one all over the stormy countries which it inhabits. 
This breed does not seem to amalgamate very readily with other races, so that crossing has not generally been successful as a 
means of permanent improvement. It has been frequently crossed by the Cheviot, but the descendants have been found inferior in 
weight, form, and quality of wool, to the pure Cheviots, and to the Black-faced Heath Breed in hardiness and aptitude to thrive in 
an upland country of heaths. But as it is not always deemed safe to change a stock of Sheep habituated to their locality, the 
practice of a continued crossing with the Cheviot until the flock has acquired the characters of the latter, has been sometimes 
adopted, so that the original Black-faced stock has become in time almost Cheviot. Another species of crossing has been re¬ 
markably successful, namely, the employing of males of the Leicester or Southdown for a first cross. The lambs, the result of 
this mixture, are excellent, rising to a much greater weight than those of the pure Black-faced blood. Great numbers of this 
mixed race are now produced, and an increased source of profit is thus opened to breeders by the sale of their young Sheep. Of 
these crosses, the best has been found to be with the Leicesters. That with the Southdowns produces very handsome Sheep, 
having perfectly black faces and legs, and a close good fleece; but they scarcely attain the size of the Leicester crosses, and the 
latter accordingly are preferred, for the special purpose for which this species of breeding is designed. 
Seeing the large tract of country which is occupied by this breed, it is of great importance to improve it to the degree to 
which it is susceptible. This, as in other cases, may be done by due selection of the breeding parents, and by rearing the animals 
under circumstances favourable to the full development of their forms. By adopting this practice, we have in every case the 
means of improving a breed of Sheep. Adequate nourishment is essential to the enlargement of size; and all the properties of 
form, which consist with the character of the race, may be communicated and rendered permanent by a due attention to breeding. 
The wool of this breed being of small comparative value, the attention of improvers may be mainly directed to the carcass. By 
attending to the roundness of the trunk and breadth of the chest, we not only produce animals which more readily fatten, but 
