SHORTHORN CROSSES 169 



actual ' scurs/ or, if not having actual scurs, they bear hairy 

 twists on each side of the skull. It is always held as an 

 indication of imperfect purity of blood (originated, perhaps, 

 at a time long before the Herd Book) to have a flattened poll. 

 Perhaps the Galloways were at some period a horned breed. 

 They resemble the Highlanders in several particulars." 



The Crosses resulting from mating Aberdeen-Angus and 

 Shorthorn cattle are similar in size and appearance, whichever 

 breed supplies the male, provided the Shorthorn cow put to a 

 polled bull be a big-framed animal. The small Angus cow 

 will throw a full-sized cross to the Shorthorn bull, but the 

 progeny of a small Shorthorn cow and Angus bull is small in 

 the bone and undersized. Nearly all first crosses from pure 

 parents are black, but a few are " grey-hairs," or " blue-grey/' 

 like the first-cross Galloway ; and the majority are without 

 horns. Compared with black crosses the blue-greys seem to 

 take more after the Shorthorn, and as cows they are more 

 liable to throw horns in their progeny. The polled bull on 

 an Ayrshire cow produces a small thinly-made-up animal, 

 and Angus crosses from other milking breeds or cross-bred 

 dairy cows are on the highest authority, that of John Ross, of 

 Meikle Tarrel, Easter Ross, difficult beasts to make anything 

 of for the butcher until they are three years old. This 

 central fact accounts to a large extent for the early non- 

 success of the Polled Angus bull when used to cross the 

 common cattle of Argentina. As country cows become 

 graded up by the use of Shorthorn bulls the Angus bull will 

 ultimately establish himself as a prime beef-producing sire. 

 A demand is beginning to spring up in this direction, 

 although at moderate prices in comparison with those paid 

 for Shorthorns. It is stated on good authority, that during 

 the year 1906, one hundred and forty-six head were purchased 

 at public sales or by private treaty from English and Scotch 

 breeders for export to Argentina. The Aberdeen-Angus 

 crosses with the Dexter breed seen at Smithfield are models 

 of small cattle. The black is very persistent, as second crosses 

 are usually black, but third and later crosses diverge into mixed 

 or broken colours, and some become white. The white heifer 

 with black muzzle and grey fringes shown on Plate LIX. is 

 an exception to this rule, being a second-cross Shorthorn. Her 

 dam was a blue-grey got by the roan bull " Regulator " out 



