COUNTIES OF ELGIN AND NAIRN. 101 



Tn the returns of 1857 the class under " two years'" comprises 

 calves only. 



These tables exhibit great irregularity in the total numbers of 

 cattle in each of the four years mentioned. Between 1857 and 

 1870 there was a decrease of 610; betw^een 1870 and 1876, an 

 increase of 2249 ; and between 1876 and 1881, a decrease of 

 629 in Morayshire. Notwithstanding the alternate rise and 

 fall in the total numbers since 1857, there is, taking all in all, 

 as will be observed, an increase of 1010. In Nairnshire, how- 

 ever, the movement has been in the opposite direction. There 

 is a total decrease of 2906 since 1857. Excepting a temporary 

 attack of cattle disease in some parts of Morayshire in 1876, 

 Moray and Nairn have long enjoyed almost perfect immunity 

 from cattle disease of any kind. Even in that year the loss was 

 not extraordinary, although several tenants sustained consider- 

 able damage in their stock. In 1876 the number of cattle visibly 

 decreased, and in 1877 the total number was only 23,689, being 

 1181 fewer than in the spring of the previous year. For a time 

 the movement of stock from one county to the other was 

 strictly prohibited. The disease was scarcely felt in Nairnshire. 

 So much seems to have been done prior to 1857 in the direction 

 of improving cattle in these counties, that comparatively little 

 room was left for improvement since tlien. It may be stated, 

 however, that farmers have been more careful and considerate in 

 selecting their breeding stock for some twenty years past than 

 they had formerly been. This has undoubtedly conduced to a 

 more perfect and profitable system of stock rearing. The general 

 stock of cows partakes largely of the shorthorn stamp, although 

 many farmers have excellent stocks of black polled cows. Well- 

 bred polled and shorthorn bulls are almost the only sires used. 

 The most popular system of breeding is to mate the polled bull 

 with cross cows, but in numerous instances shorthorn bulls are 

 used amongst polled as well as cross-bred cows. As a rule, the 

 choicest animals are derived from the former union. Farmers 

 are careful to select well-bred sires, and must also have good 

 forms and character, as well as good pedigrees. Over the lower 

 half of Moray and Nairn the fattening of cattle deservedly 

 receives more attention than it did twenty-five years ago. There 

 has been a great increase in the number of fat cattle annually 

 turned out on almost everv lowland holdinLj since then. In the 

 upper districts farmers breed cattle much more extensively than 

 tiiose in the lowlands, in consequence of these districts being 

 better adapted for breeding and rearing than fattening. Low- 

 land fanners, as our report has alreatly showed, generally, in 

 autumn buy in lean stock, mostly from one to two years old, 

 from the upper districts, and fatten them tluring the following 

 winter. Most farmers in the lower districts find this buying-in 



