'185
half Merino lamb will have double that quantity, and of doublethe value, when it becomes a two-shear sheep. On General lio-bertson’s farm, a large flock of the Black-faced breed was keptin 1804- ; but the higher price of the Cheviot wobl induced himgradually to change them by crossing first with the Cheviots, andafterwards with the Merinos , a few of which he introduced aboutthe same time. A part of the Black-faced, and also of the Che-viots, were preserved free from crossing, for the purpose of as-certaining their comparative hardiness ; and this gentleman de-clares, after a trial of nine years, that ‘ he had found the Merino ‘ and Cheviot cross-breed equally hardy and thriving as lambs,‘ bogs and sheep, as the Linton or any other breed whatever. ’
In the remote Otkney Isles* Malcolm Laing , Esq. has, in aflock of 1200 sheep, 260 Merinos, about 600 Merino-Cheviots,and the remainder chiefly Merino-Orkneys. Mr Laing uses nosheds; and after the first fortnight he finds the Merino lambsequally hardy with the Cheviot. He has therefore resolved tohave nothing but Merinos a few years hence. In 1813, the Me-rino fleeces weighed at an average 41 lib. though some of thesheep were 8 or 10 years old, and produced only 2 lib. a-head; theMerino-Cheviots, 3 lib. 7 oz. and the Merino-Orkneys 3 lib. 6 oz.
Besides these instances, there are several other flocks, more orless pure, in different parts of Scotland , of which no particularaccount has been obtained. Colonel (now Genera!) Downie’ssales in 1810, noticed in the first number of this Appendix , haveplaced these sheep in the hands of a number of proprietors ; andfrom any information that has been procured, the result of theirexperience is not different from what has been already stated.
Chap. XIV. App. No. 4-.
The following TABLE of the Live Stock of Scotland hasbeen compiled from the Reports of the different Counties ; and,when these did not afford data, from the Statistical-Account. Asthe Numbers vary even from year to year, the following enume-ration does not pretend to accuracy, but gives merely an approxi-mation.
I.
Arable Dis-trict, or S.E.Lowlands.