144 ON THE AGKICULTURE OF 



bour in the south. There is no doubt that it gave a very serious- 

 check to the agriculture of Forfarshire, more particularly to 

 rearing cattle. Had not many of the landed proprietors come 

 forward and very generously subscribed to help the more 

 necessitous to tide over the sad calamity, the consequences- 

 might have been even more serious than they were. Apart 

 from their pecuniary loss, many even of the more spirited 

 farmers were so discouraged by the destruction of their line 

 stock, that for years they were unable to set to work in 

 tliorough earnest to replace what had been so ruthlessly swept 

 away. At last, however, this feeling, and in most part also the 

 pecuniary loss, would seem to have been got over, for the farmers- 

 in Forfarshire and the Mearns have for several years been 

 devoting themselves, with all their wonted energy and success,, 

 to rearing and feeding cattle. In the former the lost ground has- 

 not yet been wholly made up, but there is reason to believe that 

 the increase in the next ten years will be greater than in the 

 last. The recent rapid growth of the herds of polled cattle will 

 be afterwards noticed. 



In dealing first with the ordinary farm stock, we may state at 

 the outset that, in the system of breeding, rearing, and feeding,, 

 there is hardly any difference between the two counties. In 

 neither the one nor the other is breeding pursued quite so largely 

 as some twenty-five years ago. Latterly, ^it has been on the- 

 increase, but still it may safely be said that too few cattle are bred 

 in both counties. There can hardly be any doubt that with free- 

 dom from disease, breeding would pay fully as well on the 

 higher lying and lighter soils as would either feeding entirely, or 

 partly feeding and partly breeding. In the later districts at 

 present a good many farmers keep a breeding stock, and sell oft' 

 their surplus cattle in lean condition either as yearlings or two- 

 year-olds, the buyers being generally farmers in the neighbour- 

 ing districts. A much larger number keep partly a breeding and 

 partly a feeding stock. These breed from one-fifth to one-half of 

 the number of cattle they feed and buy in the remainder at 

 sales or markets. The great body, however, of the farmers of 

 both counties keep only as many cows as supply the farm with 

 milk, and perhaps rear from eight to twelve calves. On many 

 large farms, indeed, not more than three, four, or five calves are 

 reared. The total number of cows in each county is about equal 

 to five for every holding above five acres in extent, and on a 

 very large number of extensive farms the actual stock of cows 

 kept does not exceed that. The general custom is to buy in 

 lean stock either in spring, summer, or autumn, and feed them 

 off during the winter and spring months. The majority are 

 bought in when from fifteen to eighteen or twenty months old, 



