SCOTLAND'S SEARCHING TEST. 551 



swept for a good portion of the year by the 

 chill East winds of the German Ocean, and 

 enduring the long, dark winters of a latitude 

 of 58 deg. north it is one of the marvels of our 

 time that the Aberdonian tenantry and their 

 neighbors of adjacent districts in the face of 

 such environment should have won so high a 

 place in the farming world. 



Science, "roots" and Short-horns. For gen- 

 erations the Northern farmers had made but 

 little progress in the improvement of their cat- 

 tle. A scanty herbage was grazed by the na- 

 tive, unimproved, black hornless breed of the 

 district, or by the shaggy little steers from the 

 Western Highlands, and these supplied what 

 beef was required for local consumption. The 

 feeding of cattle for distant markets, as a reg- 

 ular source of revenue, could receive but scant 

 attention. In the course of time, however, 

 science came to the rescue. Experience proved 

 the beneficent effects of lime and bone dust 

 upon many hitherto sterile stone-fenced fields, 

 thus paving the way for the successful intro- 

 duction of the culture of turnips as a stock 

 food; since carried to a degree of perfection 

 unknown in any other country. Marsh and 

 moor-lands were transformed by drainage and 

 artificial fertilization. Some good grass fol- 

 lowed; and this, along with the "neeps"* and 



'Colloquial Scotch for turnips- 



