JUDGING LIVE STOCK. 77 



progeny proved to be extremely profitable butchers' animals, 

 and so rapidly did this system of crossing spread that it was 

 feared the black breed would become extinct, but the efforts 

 of some breeders prevented this. The proportion of Short- 

 horn blood introduced is not known, for it was many years 

 between the time of the first Shorthorn crosses and the re- 

 cording of pedigrees, and there is but little doubt that many 

 of the superior polled, black, cross-bred cows were used as 

 breeding stock. This is, however, immaterial, as the breed 

 has become very uniform in character and prepotent in trans- 

 mitting the same. 



The first great Angus breeder was Mr. Hugh Watson, 

 of Keillor. 



He began farming on his own account in 1808, with a 

 half dozen of the "blackest and best cows" and a bull of his 

 father's stock. The same year he purchased at Brechin, For- 

 forshire, ten heifers of various colors black, brindled, black 

 with brown along the back, and with the same color at the 

 muzzle. He also purchased a black bull. These eighteen 

 head formed his foundation stock. He was a shrewd judge, 

 and bred with the one aim of producing beef animals of high 

 merit. He was a very broad-minded man and enjoyed the 

 friendship of the leading breeders of Great Britain, was very 

 energetic and wide-awake to the advantage of exhibiting his 

 stock; and it is stated by his son, Wm. Watson, that he won 

 more than 500 prizes in England, Scotland, Ireland and 

 France. His animals combined high individual merit, with 

 remarkable constitution. Some of his females were very 

 prolific one, known as Old Grannie living to the age of 36 

 years, and producing 25 calves, 24 of which she reared. The 

 last one, born in her 29th year, was suckled on another cow. 



Wm. McCombie, of Tillyfour, was an experienced feeder 

 of steers for market. He had found, in a long and varied 

 experience, that the pure-bred black polled cattle and the 

 crosses containing more or less of their blood, were superior 

 beef animals; and after associating with his father in the 

 beef cattle trade for several years, he began independent 

 operations as a breeder in 1830, spurred thereto by the 

 knowledge that the deluge of Shorthorn crosses threatened 

 the extinction of the breed. Where he secured his founda- 

 tion stock is not clear, but in a book written by him in after 

 life, he ascribes his success to a Mr. Fullerton, who had be- 



