BREED OF CATTLE. 31? 



believe that we cannot do batter than adduce the example of 

 Mr A. Bowie, Mains of Kelly, who, as we have already intimated, 

 was bred to the business, and has had, so to speak, forty years' 

 apprenticeship. His remarks do not refer simply to the food 

 bestowed, the shelter provided, and so on, but taking a mucli 

 wider range, they bristle with information on many important 

 points connected with the management of the black skins. 



We have previously stated that the breeding of polled cattle 

 has been regarded as a labour of love by Mr Bowie. He has 

 adhered to them in the firm conviction that for beef-producing, 

 properties of the finest quality, hardiness, and early maturity 

 they are the most suitable breed for Scotland and other countries. 

 Some of Mr Bowie's stock reached JSTew Zealand many years ago, 

 and he has had the pleasure of hearing from the owner that his 

 bovine antipodes are succeeding well in that fine climate. 



Mr Bowie has been very successful in the breeding of bulls 

 both for home and outside service. He might also have had fair 

 success as a competitor at the national shows with animals of 

 the female class, but never save once — at Perth in 1871 — 

 exhibited a female at them, simply because he declined to 

 destroy their breeding properties by turning them into hard fat, 

 only fit for ^butchers' meat, and probably over fed even for that. 

 He adds : " Perhaps to this circumstance I owe my success, such 

 as it has been, in breeding males, because, right or wrong, I have 

 been accustomed to think how can a calf be properly developed 

 in a womb already filled with hard fat ? " Hearing of the extra- 

 ordinary fat females at the Highland show at Aberdeen this 

 year, he cannot but lament that this over-feeding is seriously on 

 the increase, in fact, the shows are merging into fat competitions 

 rather than for giving encouragement to cattle breeders. 



As a frequent judge at the Highland Society's and other 

 shows, ^Ir Bowie admits that a certain amount of Hesh is 

 uecessary for proper judgment, and to set the animal ofi* to 

 advantage, but he is of opinion that this can be attained by 

 feeding on ordinary farm produce — turnips, straw, and grass. 

 In his own management he often limits the first of these 

 supplied to one and two year old heifers, and always to in-calf 

 cows not giving milk, just to prevent the laying on of fat, an 

 excess of which in his opinion also destroys the milking pro- 

 perties. From the results of this experience he believes the 

 Highland Society should have a ruh' to the following effect : — 

 *'That no breeder or exhibitor — on oatli — shall be permitted to 

 show a female of any age, calves excepted, that has been fed 

 \ij)on other ])roduce than the ordinary turnips, straw, and gras^l 

 of the farm." Indeed he has found that these articles given in 

 moderation do not prevent his iiner types of females from 

 getting too fat. 



