COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CROMAETY. 187 



at Inverness, Glasgow (where his sire and younger brother were 

 also first in their respective classes), and at Aberdeen last 

 summer. He has [also been a " Koyal " winner in England, and 

 at the Royal Irish Show in 1875 he topped his ovrn class, and 

 beat his illustrious father for the Challenge Cup. The securing 

 of a thoroughly good stock-bull is one of the main points of 

 shorthorn breeding, and the purchasing of " Eosario," to begin 

 with, speaks well for Mr Gordon's judgment and determination 

 in this respect. Twenty-two cows are in calf at Udale to 

 '' Rosario " this season (1876). Mr Gordon's herd now numbers in 

 all thirty-four cows and heifers and two bulls (" Rosario " and 

 " Royal Eden "); and forms an interesting and important feature 

 in the agriculture of the counties of Ross and Cromarty. 



Cattle Feediiuj. — It has been calculated that the annual produce 

 of beef and mutton on five farms in Easter Ross is about equal 

 to the amount of beef and mutton consumed in Edinburgh in a 

 month — rather a contrast to those days in which that worthy 

 English lady, previously referred to, had to abandon her residence 

 in Ross-shire because the only description of beef she could find 

 for her table was that of old cows. The Board of Trade returns 

 do not place Ross and Cromarty very high up among other 

 Scotch counties with regard to the number of cattle above two 

 years old, exclusive of cows, or in other words of cattle that have 

 reached the feeding age. But it must be explained that the 

 buying-in system of cattle management so extensively pursued 

 in these counties excludes from these returns many hundreds of 

 animals that are annually fed within their bounds — at least 

 excludes them from the returns referring to Ross and Cromarty. 

 A very common practice among a great many of the Ross and 

 Cromarty farmers is to buy in stirks or two-year-olds about the 

 end of summer or autumn, and feed them off for the Eebruary, 

 March, and April markets, and as the Board of Trade returns are 

 not collected till the various crops have been sown, no cognizance 

 can be had of the sojourn in Ross and Cromarty of these buccolic 

 birds of passage. The 10,000 cattle of two years and upwards 

 that are allotted to these counties by the Board of Trade returns 

 do not therefore represent anything like the total numlier fed off 

 every year. AVhat that total might be no correct idea can be 

 given, but it may very safely be aflirnied that Ross-shire is now 

 one of the most extensive cattle-feedin<^ counties in the kin<j:d()ni. 

 On many small farms of from ](»() to loO acres in extent, from 

 twenty to thirty cattle, and in some cases even forty, are fed otl' 

 every year; while several farms of from 150 to 200 acres often 

 send in a season very close on 100 animals into the beef markets 

 in the primest condition. To ch^tailtlie various systems pursued 

 by all these dill'erent feeders would be useless, but we shall 

 append a verv few iiDtos on the modes adopted by thive or hnir 



