THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



481 



and warmth. But there was considerable difference of 

 opinion on this point. Mr. Anderson, who opened the 

 discussion, had himself some Shorthorns, but " he had 

 the greatest liking for Highland cattle. He had some 

 Highlanders, four years old, now at Kildrummie, 

 worth £30 a piece. When his Highlanders were four 

 years old he sent them to the London Christmas mar- 

 ket, and ho was never disappointed in the price which 

 they brought him. He had been disappointed with 

 crosses, but never with Highlanders." Then, Mr. 

 Frazer, of Fairlie, thought " neither their severe cli- 

 mate nor their pastures were suitable for Shorthorns. 

 He kept Highlanders because he found the climate was 

 most suitable to support that kind of stock. He found 

 that the warmer they were kept the better they 

 thrived ; indeed he thought it was almost useless to 

 keep cattle over the winter unless they kept them 

 warm." Mr. Mackay, of Dinoch, on the contrary, did 

 not consider that tlio Highlanders paid in an equal 

 ratio for better care-taking ; and this is a very im- 

 portant point in putting the case : " If our cattle were 

 aa our sheep, dependent upon our hill pasturage, I 

 should place Highland cattle in the same category 

 with black-faced sheep, and say that they, and they 

 alone, were adapted to our circumstances. And where 

 the system of farming pursued is the same as it 

 was a century ago, where cattle are fed on straw dur- 

 ing the winter, and on heather in summer, of course a 

 change from Highland to cross cattle must be a ruin- 

 ous one, inasmuch as a Highlander will fatten where a 

 shorthorn would decline. If your food is heather, your 

 stock must be Highland. If, on the other hand, you 

 have good houses, and feed your cattle on straw, tur- 

 nips, and oil-cake, you must have cross cattle, as such 

 feeding is quite thrown away upon Highlanders." 

 Thei'e is a great deal of the argument of " progress" 

 about this, and the speaker goes on to distinguish be- 

 tween the relative merits of "starving" and " feed- 

 ing" stock. For the one alternative it is very evident 

 there is no other beast equal to the one so long ha- 

 bituated to the system ; the question is, whether he 

 would behave as well under better circumstances ? 



Experience answers this in a variety of ways. Our 

 own knowledge of the North tends to assure us there is 

 no other breed of animal now so much neglected there 

 as the rough-coated, long-horned, pure Highland ox. 

 We remember yet the disappointment we felt at the 

 Bhow of them brought together in the heart as it wore 

 of their own territory; while at Dumfries, this summer, 

 their class would bear no comparison, either for numbers 

 or merits, with the black polled or the Ayrshire. 

 The Highlander may do well enough upon heather, but to 

 our eye he never shows to so much advantage — he never 

 looks so grand, so useful, or oven so noble — as he does in 

 Bingley Hall or Baker-street. And salesmen and butchers 

 say the same. The very best meat of all that comes to 

 table,either for flavour or firmness,is that of the Highland 

 ox, when he has been properly " done by.'' It sur- 



passes alike the Galloway, the Devon, and the Short- 

 horn. Go to Badminton and ask the Duke how they 

 taste ? Or Mr. Thompson how they do ? And the answer 

 will be all in their favour. This of course goes to cor- 

 rect Mr. Mackay's opinion that feeding is thrown away 

 upon the Highlanders. W^as it ever fairly tried there, 

 or have the hapless mountaineers only had enough to 

 cat and drink after they have crossed the Border ? Of 

 course we must except such men as Mr. Anderson, 

 who makes beef cheaper off the Highlander than any- 

 thing else, and at the same time finds it fetches the 

 best price in the market. 



On the whole, the deduction one draws from this 

 discussion is that the farmers themselves are more in 

 fault than the cattle they contrast and compare. It 

 really seems that neither the pure breed nor the crosses 

 are properly treated. The strain of the Highlander 

 is evidently being cultivated with less and less care, 

 and he is degenerating accordingly. Then, the 

 crossing has come to the ci'ossing of crosses, and 

 " miserable-looking cattle are to be met with." Of 

 'course there is nothing more fatal than this. As no- 

 thing pays better than a first cross, nothing can be 

 worse than going on with it. A new strain of blood 

 may be judiciously introduced, and gradually assimi- 

 lated with what it is grafted upon, but even such a step 

 in the best of hands is always something of a problem, 

 and seldom as lasting a success. Here, however, in 

 Inverness-shire, they seem to have taken to the use of 

 mongrels, while in a proportionate degree they have 

 been neglecting the character of their own stock. On 

 such a showing it is high time the Inverness Farmers' 

 Society had such a meeting. With due regard for them, 

 there is no possible reason why both sorts should not 

 still flourish in different parts of the district. Let that 

 great impi'over of his age, the shorthorn bull, be by no 

 means ignored, but above all let the native cattle be 

 looked up. It is here that the great strength of the 

 country should centre. Let the kilted hillman make it 

 his business to learn all Mr. McCombie has done with 

 the Aberdeens, and of how famous a cross conies of 

 them. And then let him reflect that he has quite as 

 good material to go upon, for one of the finest of all 

 " nicks " is that of the shorthorn bull with the High- 

 land heifer. Even further than this, the Highland 

 ox is something of a fancy with us in the South. 

 As Mr. Simpson, the chairman, said, "they 

 are much in demand, for keeping in the parks of the 

 English aristocracy, where their picturesque appear- 

 ance suited the scenery, and doubtless their flesh was 

 also relished in the Baronial Halls." There can be 

 no doubt whatever as to either of these attractive re- 

 commendations, and we have only to trust their own 

 friends will no longer neglect what we are so ready to 

 prize. The tendency of the debate at the Inverness 

 Club was to pit one kind against another, and to 

 run one up at the expense of the other. This is 

 scarcely the way we should be inclined to treat the 



