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ON THE LIVE-STOCK
live all the year on a highland pasture This statementis repeated in substance, in the more recent Report of theHebrides , by Mr Macdonald.
The fact certainly is, that the Cheviot sheep are not bredon low and fertile lands, nor pampered with hay and tur-nips—the greater number indeed, scarcely ever taste either hayor turnips until they are sent to the low country to be fatten-ed. At the same time, it must be admitted, that the herbageand natural shelter of those hills are favourable circumstances,which are not to be found in a continuous range of black heathymountains, where no provision can be made for winter. Per-haps it may be said, in the words of the intelligent reportersfor Northumberland , “ that each breed,” (the blackfaced, andthe Cheviot), is particularly adapted to particular situations,the one to coarse , exposed mountains , where the luxury ofgreen herbage is thinly scattered, or rarely to be found; theother to hilly pastures, where considerable portions of ver-dant surface predominate, such as characterize the pastoraldistricts around Cheviot f.”
“ The present system of sheep, or store farming as it iscalled in the soptl} of Scotland , does not appear to have ta-ken place till about the end of the reign of James VI . Be-fore that period, the mountainous south country districtswere kept under a stock of black cattle, and some smallstraggling flocks of sheep, as was the case in the Highlandstill of late years f.” At the present time, there are few cat-tle kept on tl le Cheviot hills, and, with the exception of ayerv small number of cows and horses, for the use of the far-mers and their herds, and a few patches of arable land onsome farms, the whole district is occupied by sheep. But inwhat manner this change was effected, and by what means