76 CATTLE SHORTHORNS 



pedigree, and if the animal suited his purpose he paid no 

 heed to strains of blood or lines of descent. He was 

 influenced by no prejudices in favour of Duchesses or any 

 other fashionable or speculative strain, but deliberated 

 exclusively on what would conform best to his circumstances 

 and surroundings. On December 24, 1888, J. W. Cruick- 

 shank supplied the following note to the Author : 



" What the Aberdeenshire breeders of Shorthorns have 

 always aimed at has been to keep close to the practical 

 object for which cattle are produced. They have always 

 believed that purity of descent and regularity of form and 

 type are absolutely necessary to success, but they have 

 always recognised that no purity of descent and no mere 

 conformity to certain canons of fashion, however desirable 

 they may be in themselves, can in any degree make good the 

 want of individual merit in the most essential points of beef 

 and milk production. The singleness of purpose with which 

 practical usefulness has been kept in view has led to a 

 slightly different valuation of the most desirable qualities in 

 an animal. One hears little about a waxy horn or a noble 

 carriage though these attributes are not overlooked because 

 the qualities which denote vigour of constitution and a 

 tendency to mature early are held to be of higher importance. 

 Aberdeenshire breeders have in nearly all cases been tenant 

 farmers who are dependent on their skill and success for 

 their daily bread their customers have generally been their 

 own neighbours who are raising cattle for the butcher, and 

 hence the breeders have been pulled up in any course which 

 has been proved to be an error of judgment by the most 

 imperative of all necessities." 



Diligent search was maintained by Amos Cruickshank, 

 during numerous periodical personal visits, for animals of the 

 type wanted, and his frequent purchases of both males and 

 females were drawn from many of the available sources in 

 distant parts of England as well as from his immediate 

 neighbours. For over twenty years he paid no heed to the 

 methods of breeding introduced by Bakewell and followed by 

 the Collings, Bates, and the Booths, but adopted the system of 

 " Natural Breeding," mating by intuition and foresight, the 

 result of extensive experience, animals suitable for his 

 purpose drawn from the Colling, Booth, Bates and other 

 herds, irrespective of their line of breeding or family 

 connection. 



