not the upper, the front portion of which is toothless. The ewes, then,
being one year old to start with, they will be eight years old at the
end of seven years. I have only, however, given you so long a term that
you may see what would be the result of putting out sheep on terms
either for three, four, five, six, or seven years, according as you
like. Sheep at eight years old will be in their old age: they will
live nine or ten years--sometimes more, but an eight-year-old sheep
would be what is called a broken-mouthed creature; that is to say, it
would have lost some of its teeth from old age, and would generally be
found to crawl along at the tail end of the mob; so that of the 2582
sheep returned to me, 500 would be very old, 200 would be seven years
old, 200 six years old. All these would pass as old sheep, and not
fetch very much; one might get about 15s. a head for the lot all round.
Perhaps, however, you might sell the 200 six years old with the younger
ones. Not to overestimate, count these 700 old sheep as worth nothing
at all, and consider that I have 1800 sheep in prime order, reckoning
the lambs as sheep (a weaned lamb being worth nearly as much as a full-
grown sheep). Suppose these sheep to have gone down in value from 25s.
a head to 10s., and at the end of my term I realise 900 pounds. Suppose
that of the wool money I have only spent 62 pounds 10s. per annum, i.e.
ten per cent on the original outlay, and that I have laid by the
remainder of the wool money. I shall have from the wool money a surplus
of 630 pounds (some of which should have been making ten per cent
interest for some time); that is to say, my total receipts for the sheep
should be at the least 1530 pounds. Say that the capital had only
doubled itself in the seven years, the investment could not be
considered a bad one. The above is a bona-fide statement of one of the
commonest methods of investing money in sheep. I cannot think from all
I have heard that sheep will be lower than 10s. a head, still some place
the minimum value as low as 6s. {3}