File:Sheep, breeds and management (1893) (14595220250).jpg

Identifier: sheepbreedsmanag00wrig (find matches)
Title: Sheep, breeds and management
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Wrightson, John
Subjects: Sheep
Publisher: London, Vinton
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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ck, and is evidentlyof volcanic origin. The soil is of better quality than that ofthe mountain limestones and grits which form the basis ofthe heath country, on which the Black-faced sheep find theirhome. Cheviot is clothed with sweet, short herbage to thesummit. It is early and late covered with snow, and itsgreat altitude exposes it to severe storms during manymonths of the year. Here is the home of the Cheviot sheep,which have been bred there from time immemorial. Thecontrast between them and the heath sheep is complete.They are white-faced and hornless in both sexes. The bodyis long in comparison, which has given rise to the expressionlong and short sheep in speaking of the two rival races. Thewool is fine and short, instead of coarse and lashy as in theheath sheep. They are, like most mountain breeds, disposedto be light in the forequarter. The fact of a well-definedbreed occupying a limited area such as Cheviot, and bearingno special resemblance to any other breed of sheep, is a
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THE CHEVIOT BREED. 89 curious fact, and one upon which Uttle Hght can be thrown.The most probable explanation is that the Cheviot breed isa survival of breeds of sheep once prevalent in different partsof Scotland, more or less resembling each other, and theCheviot sheep of the present day. While these races havedisappeared, the Cheviot has held his own, and not only sobut has been improved and extended into many otherlocalities, both north and south of his native hills. Towardsthe close of the last century, and up to comparatively recenttimes, the Cheviot breed was slowly displacing the Black-faces, but, as already mentioned, a reaction in favour of thehardier sheep has set in, owing to a series of severe winters. Mr. David Archibald tells us that little attempt at im-proving Cheviot sheep was possible until the end of theborder feuds and forays which disturbed the peace of theborder land in the days of Johnnie Armstrong and otherblackmailers and freebooters. It was not until about fi

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