326 Bise and Progress of' Shortho7'ns. 



horn that they now look for at least seven- eighths of the great 

 beef supplies, which are poured by the cattle and dead-meat 

 trains, as well as by the steamers, from Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, 

 and Morayshire, into the Eng-lish markets. 



Even the traveller in " the wind-swept Orcades " and the 

 Shetland Isles can trace the conquest of " the red, white, and 

 roan." The Shetland cow, which after a long course of the finest 

 lowland pasture is thought to " die well " at 2^- cwt. neat, will 

 respond with a calf which looks nearly as big as herself at five 

 months, and will fetch its 11 guineas at sixteen. So highly 

 is this cross valued, that at present an endeavour is l)eing made 

 (such as is said to have answered siil) rosd with the " Angus") to 

 j)ermanently enlarge the Shetland cattle liy letting the heifer 

 receive her first impregnation from a shorthorn. Jn some of 

 the islands the latter is fast driving out the native breed on all 

 the better farms ; and in the Orkneys, where the farmers were 

 working on a mixed foundation of West Highland, Devon, and 

 original Orknov, the price of yearling crosses has been raised by 

 its use nearly 400 per cent. In Caithness " cross-bred " cows 

 have quite superseded the old cows of the country, and thanks 

 to the introduction of shorthorns more than thirty years ago by 

 the late Mr. William Home and " Shirra Traill," and the most 

 scientific and careful rearing, the high keepers can all reckon on 

 1/. a month for their vearlings at Georgemas fair time. In 

 Morayshire also there was once not "a s])otted beast " to be found, 

 whereas now more than three-fourths of the cattle at the Elgin 

 monthly market are shorthorn crosses, and it is, in fact, now 

 almost impossible to execute an extensive commission for the 

 " old Morayshire horned breed." The Forglen breed in Banff- 

 shire is quite "crossed out" by them, and in Aberdeenshire 

 nearly every " cross-bred " cow has more strains of pure blood 

 than would satisfy the ' Herd Book.' The breadth of turnips 

 has increased enormouslv throughout the three "beef counties," 

 and although McCombie's black beasts from the Alford district 

 have no equals in the Smithfield Christmas market, Buchan has 

 disowned its original blacks and brindles, and has quite fallen 

 into the fashion. Many of the leading Aberdeenshire breeders 

 will now finish ofl' from forty to seventy, where they were once 

 content with half-a-dozen, and geneially sell them off at rather 

 more than two-and-a-half years old for 30/. Apart from any 

 prize-winning prestige, exceptional specimens a year older will fetch 

 their 50/., and a two-year-old steer has recently reached 94/. 10s. 

 by auction. Many of the Scottish feeders breed as well as buy, 

 and in Aberdeenshire thev have a wide choice, as one herd 

 owner alone has fifty or sixty pure shorthorn bull-calves for sale 

 in the course of the season. 



