CHAPTER XVIII. 



SCOTLAND'S SEARCHING TEST. 



On the rich farming lands of England and 

 America the Short-horn, as a prolific source of 

 both profit and pleasure, had received early 

 and adequate recognition. For half a century 

 " John Bull" and "Brother Jonathan" had been 

 heaping honors and riches at the feet of the 

 "red, white and roan" with a recklessness un- 

 paralleled in agricultural history, but in win- 

 ning its way into their affections the breed had 

 reveled in the bounty of the most opulent ag- 

 riculture the world has ever seen. Could it 

 maintain its superiority when the path no 

 longer led through the grassy vales of York 

 and Durham, or by the rustling cornfields of 

 "the States"? It was not until long after the 

 great feeders of the Ohio Valley began driving 

 their fine big Short-horn steers to seaboard 

 markets that the tenant farmers of the North 

 of Scotland undertook to answer this pertinent 

 question in a district where balmy breezes, 

 sunny skies, rich pastures, groaning grain bins 

 and other bovine "creature comforts" were 

 conspicuous mainly by their absence; and the 



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