318 ON THE POLLED ANGUS OR ABERDEEN 



If breeders will feed to excess, ]\Ir Bowie is of opinion that 

 they should confine this treatment to the males, as in his 

 experience he has found that the service of a fat bull is surer 

 than that of a lean animal, and giving extraneous food as oilcake, 

 &c., may pay when the animal reaches the butcher. Forcing a 

 female for a paltry prize of L.IO or L.15 is ruinous ; nay, absolute 

 cruelty. Mr Bowie then states that he has dwelt long upon this 

 subject, because he believes that many polled breeders are 

 getting into the rut of the shorthorn fanciers, and that their over- 

 kindness, if this be a proper term, is being manifested in lumps 

 and patches, which in his eyes are odious. 



Mr Bowie further states, that although his breeding stock have 

 paid him well, his butchers' beasts have paid him better — ergo, 

 the calves brought up by pail leave larger returns than those 

 which breeders have suckled, as such get a cow to themselves. 

 On the wdiole this is true, although in exceptional cases, where 

 L.100 can be got for a single animal, there is more profit in the 

 latter system, as the sum named will pay a cow's keep for eight 

 years. 



The remnant of Mr Bowie's excellent account we give in his 

 own words, lest it should lose any of its force by our paraphrase. 

 He continues : — " Einderpest having nearty extinguished the 

 polled herds in Forfarshire, I have now great difficulty in getting 

 black calves to buy for feeding purposes. Although my bulls 

 do good service in the district, such is the mongrel character of 

 the cows that it is rare to get a black calf worth buying. The 

 Ayrshire cow prevails hereabouts, and what are the crosses 

 between Ayrshire cows and polled bulls ? Why, generally 

 wretched things ! 



" The calves reared by hand-pail seldom get more than from 

 3 to 4 Scotch pints (about 6 to 8 imperial. quarts) of milk per 

 day, but it is given sweet and warm from the cow. We com- 

 mence with very small quantities, added to daily until 3 pints is 

 reached at ten days old. At a month or six weeks, they are 

 offered sliced Swedes, cut in pulping fashion, also oilcake, both 

 of which they take readily to if milk is scarce. I distinctly dis- 

 approve of cooked food for calves, but certainly think they have 

 been the better of a supplement of the " Albion food." Every 

 calf thus reared has a loose box, 6 feet by 5 feet, fitted up with 

 hay-rack and box for turnips or cake, and the earlier the calf, the 

 better for the butcher, at, say from 2|- to 2 years old. 



" Here let me remark on this point, that if the early calf, 

 whether for breeding or feeding, be the best, why should the 

 Highland Society shut out of their yard those calved before the 

 1st of January ? In my opinion the calves should be born after 

 the first or middle of November. If it were possible to have my 

 whole complement of calves — say 25 to 27 — thoroughly educated 



