OF THE PRESENT DAY 165 



may therefore conclude, have been either developed in recent 

 years, or have been obtained by selection and moulding from 

 the superior herds of those proprietors who, before the time 

 referred to, took an interest in the improvement of live 

 stock. 



The Aberdeen-Angus of the present day occupies 

 among Scotch cattle very much the same position that the 

 North Devon does among English breeds for quality of flesh, 

 refinement of style, perfection of the rounded type of 

 symmetry, and, it might be added, for the excellence of its 

 marbled beef; yet it must not be forgotten that these 

 qualities, like those of all British breeds, however distinct and 

 however permanent they may be, are the results of the com- 

 mingling of blood of various kinds. No single breed is pure 

 if we go back for but a few generations. Each breed has 

 its ups and downs in the record of its development, and it is 

 pretty generally recognised among experts that the early 

 years of the present century marked one of the periods of 

 depression in the history of this northern polled breed, during 

 which regression was probably more active than progression. 



It is recorded that less than one hundred years ago 

 crossing was carried on with Ayrshire, Guernsey, Fife, 1 

 Shorthorn, and Galloway cattle. How much of this blood has 

 been maintained in the best animals of the present day is 

 a matter for conjecture. It is true that the well-known 

 attempt by Lord Panmure to introduce a Galloway cross 

 was not attended with success ; but, on the other hand, there 

 is good reason to believe that the very extensive and success- 

 ful use of Shorthorn bulls in breeding grazing cattle for the 

 Southern markets, led to the incorporation of Shorthorn 

 qualities into the breed during the early years of its improve- 

 ment. At times very distinct Shorthorn characters appear 

 by atavism in polled cattle of good blood and long pedigrees, 

 and disappear in the next generation. 2 The use of a Short- 



1 The Fife Horned breed is now extinct. They were large black cattle, 

 rather slow in coming to maturity, but unsurpassed as grazers after they 

 were three years old. See Plate LXV. 



2 The author remembers having seen a black-and-white cow of this 

 kind some years ago, which had well-developed horns, and quarters 

 unmistakably like those of a Shorthorn. Her immediate ancestors as 

 well as her descendants were animals of the pure type and of superior 

 quality. 



