Live Stock. 73 



with the gradual decline in the value of money, the 

 price of meat in the market, by the year 1792, enabled 

 the graziers to give at the rate of 6s. 8d. the stone." 

 After the use of turnips had become general, " every 

 succeeding generation " of cattle increased in size, and 

 the statement of Messrs. Williamson was that in their 

 time (say 1810) by the introduction of the turnip hus- 

 bandry, the native breed, from better keeping, had come 

 to weigh at least double its former weight. Up to this 

 date, and indeed for a long while after, the ordinary 

 farmer did not regard the fattening of cattle as a thing 

 much in his way. He aimed rather at rearing what 

 stock he could, to be sold in " fresh keeping condition" 

 to the butcher or other person who chose to " feed " for 

 the shambles, a state of matters now very completely 

 changed. 



According to the estimate of Sir John Sinclair, about 

 100,000 head of cattle were sent to England yearly from 

 Scotland toward the close of the eighteenth century, 

 and of these a considerable number were from far north 

 districts. About 3000 were taken to the southern mar- 

 kets by drovers " who droved them by land " all the 

 way from the county of Caithness, arid probably 8000 1 

 to 9000 were " droved " yearly from Aberdeenshire. 



Of the Highlander's way of turning out his cattle- 

 we have the following description (dated about 

 1730) : " About the latter end of August or the 

 beginning of September the cattle are brought into 

 good order by their summer feed, and the beef is ex- 

 tremely sweet and succulent, which, I suppose, is owing 

 in good part to their being reduced to such poverty in 

 the spring, and made up again with new flesh. Now 

 the drovers collect their herds and drive them to fairs 

 and markets on the borders of the Lowlands, and some- 

 times to the north of England ; and in their passage 

 they pay a certain tribute proportionable to the number 

 of cattle, to the owner of the territory they pass 

 through, which is in lieu of all reckonings for grazing."' 



