West Highland Cattle 



357 



of man, or at least of a stranger, they be- 

 come shy, and, Uke all wild animals, guard 

 their young with jealous care ; and the means 

 of offence and defence at the command of a 

 Highland heifer are not to be lightly regarded 

 by the most courageous. The age at which 

 Highland cows calve is usually four years, 

 because it is found that, unlike softer breeds, 

 the heifers are not at maturity until they 

 are three years old, and of course breeding 

 at an earlier age stops their growth. The 

 usual practice with Highland farmers is to 

 draft off in October or November their old 

 cows and surplus young stock, the latter 

 generally at six-quarters old. Prices, of 

 course, vary with demand and quality ; but 

 from ^8 to ;^i2 is the ordinary range of 

 prices for the better sort of this class of young 

 cattle. 



The crossing of Highland heifers with 

 shorthorns is a subject which is often dis- 

 cussed, and generally viewed with great 

 favour by good judges of both breeds of 

 cattle, but the experiment does not seem to 

 have been yet tried with such success as to 

 have commanded much attention. There 

 may be various reasons for this, but it occurs 

 to us that a main cause is that the experi- 

 ment has hitherto been chiefly, if not exclu- 

 sively tried by southern breeders, crossing 

 two-year-old heifers or aged cows with short- 

 horn bulls, producing in either case a 

 diminutive offspring. If three - year - old 

 heifers were brought direct from the hills and 

 crossed with a pure-bred shorthorn, and 

 afterwards maintained on their usual " sober " 

 fare, there is every reason to expect that the 

 result would be satisfactory, and no cross is 

 so likely to be useful in upland districts as 

 this, combining, as it should do, the 

 '''growthy" qualities of the shorthorn with 

 the hardiness of the Highlander. 



Until about eighty or a hundred years ago, 

 the mountains of the north of Scotland were 

 pastured with " black cattle," as the West 

 Highland breed is still frequently termed, 

 when they were gradually displaced by flocks 

 of sheep. Previous to that time the stock of 

 a Highland farmer consisted of cattle, horses, 

 goats, and a few sheep, the goats and sheep 



being generally penned at night; and the 

 remains of those pens are now frequently 

 seen in the form of grassy mounds or the 

 foundations of ruined walls on the green 

 sites of the old "shealings," or summer 

 quarters of the Highland pastoral farmer of 

 days now long gone by. The cattle, from 

 their hardy character, lived on the higher 

 mountains during summer and autumn, and 

 during winter and spring subsisted as best 

 they might on such rough herbage as they 

 could find among the woods or on the 

 meadows of the lower straths or valleys ; but 

 a frequent result of this rude manner of farm- 

 ing was that a severe winter, or still worse a 

 severe spring, cut off, by sheer starvation, a 

 large proportion of the stock. The only con- 

 solation was, that at that time the stock did 

 not represent much money, and the rent was 

 not difficult to pay. It is not above a hun- 

 dred years since a grazier in the district of 

 Rannoch, in Perthshire, not reckoned at the 

 time as by any means a wealthy man, lost 

 from starvation, one severe spring, 120 head 

 of cattle. Now, the system of management, 

 if system the old mode of farming could be 

 called, is entirely changed. In many parts 

 of the Highlands sheep have entirely dis- 

 placed cattle — only a few cows, sometimes 

 only one, being kept on the farm for do- 

 mestic purposes, and these few are fre- 

 quently Ayrshires or crosses. But over the 

 wreater part of the mainland and islands 

 of the counties of Argyll and Inverness, 

 the north-west of Perthshire, and the 

 highlands of Dumbarton and Stirling 

 shires, West Highland cattle are bred and 

 reared on the lower lands, generally with 

 marked improvement and success, and in 

 many instances to great perfection. And 

 there is every reason to believe that, in the 

 districts named, this breed of cattle is the 

 most profitable to cultivate, because from its 

 hardy character it will thrive, both in sum- 

 mer and winter, under circumstances in 

 which the smoother-coated and softer breeds 

 would perish. Highland cattle are easily 

 fed, and the quality of the beef is admittedly 

 superior, and consequently in great demand ; 

 but the objection to them, as compared with 



