552 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



oat fields, provided a firm foundation for a 

 more profitable agriculture. Indeed, "roots " 

 fairly revolutionized North-Country farming 

 and rendered it possible to attempt the im- 

 provement of the size and weight of the Aber- 

 deenshire, Banff and Forfar herds with pros- 

 pects of success.* The experiment was made 

 and carried to a successful issue primarily by 

 the use of Short-horn blood. 



Feed-lot considerations paramount, Those 

 who inaugurated this work of improvement, as 

 well as those who followed in their footsteps, 

 were, as a rule, men who made a living by 

 their own unaided efforts. Upon those North- 

 ern hills life was real and earnest. There was 

 no place in the local agriculture for the purely 

 ornamental. Cattle had first of all to be of a 

 rent-paying sort. This called for sound consti- 

 tutions to enable the animals to withstand the 

 climate and for a feeding quality and early 

 maturity that would give prompt and full re- 

 turns in the feed-lot for all forage consumed. 

 Those to whom the early breeders had to look 

 for the sale of their surplus bulls were men 

 who had roofs to keep over their heads. They 



* During a visit to Aberdeenshlre In 1892 the author was shown a fine 

 turnip field on one of the farms held by Mr. William Duthle from the Earl 

 of Aberdeen which, originally a peat bog, had been drained and reclaimed 

 at a cost to the tenant of about 30 per acre. Inasmuch as this sum ($150) 

 represents about double the value in fee simple of good American farms, 

 this fact affords a fitting illustration of the expense and labor with which 

 many North of Scotland farms were adapted to the requirements of sue 

 ceaaful cattle-breeding. 



