Live Stock. 69 



Fifeshire on the east coast, with Perthshire and the 

 adjoining counties to the westward, had been chiefly 

 concerned in that business at an earlier date. Farmers 

 in the north-eastern counties Angus, Kincardine, 

 Aberdeen, and Banff got oxen for the plough from 

 the Lothians, and later from the county of Fife ; the 

 cattle they reared of their own native breed being too 

 " sober" for the yoke. They bought them of the dealers 

 when young ; that is, when three years old, or there- 

 by ; kept them as draught cattle for the next eight or 

 nine years, and then re-sold them to the same class of 

 traders at the best price obtainable ; though it would 

 frequently happen, we are told, that these venerable 

 oxen had to be parted with " at a great discount." But 

 now that the Lothian farmers had begun to find it more 

 to their advantage to grow wheat and other grain rather 

 than breed live stock, the rearing of cattle became of 

 more account with the northern Scottish farmer. In the 

 first place, he must have oxen to enable him to plough 

 his land ; and he would by and by come to take his due 

 part in rearing cattle for the dealer to drove southward. 

 Some of the proprietors made spirited efforts to im- 

 prove the cattle and rear stronger animals by obtaining 

 bulls from Falkland in Fife, where a superior breed, 

 originally from south the Tweed, existed. Other varie- 

 ties were imported directly from England, but with no 

 great success it would seem. The complaint was that 

 there was no food to support these large-sized and some- 

 what delicate animals. And, indeed, until cultiva- 

 tion of the turnip became general (which it did in the 

 latter part of the eighteenth century, especially during 

 the last decade), it is rather difficult to realise the 

 miserable style in which even the small black cattle 

 were maintained, especially during the " wintering," 

 when the staple of their sustenance, at its best, was oat 

 straw, with what they could pick up by roaming over 

 the fields. By early spring the poor animals had got 

 into sadly reduced condition, and if severe weather 



