A DUAL-PURPOSE BREED. 805 



the Aberdeen- Angus cattle improved so much, and there can be no 

 doubt that many a dash of Short-horn blood was introduced with 

 much advantage to the black-skins. This, however, is away from 

 the point. The great scarcity of Aberdeen- Angus heifers drove 

 the farmers to use the Aberdeen-Angus bulls on their cross-bred 

 Short-horn grade cows. I can distinctly remember the subject of 

 the doings of a farmer, an owner of a herd of high-grade (Short- 

 horn) cows, being discussed widely with much headshaking seeing 

 he had ventured to use a polled bull in his herd. His experiment 

 was carefully watched and before fire years there was a demand 

 for Aberdeen- Angus bulls for use in farmers' herds of cross-bred, 

 in fact, Short-horn grade cows. 



For the past thirty years the following may be said to be the 

 common practice in the North of Scotland. As I have said the 

 cows in the hands of farmers were more or less Short-horns. 

 These were put to the Aberdeen- Angus bulls and the heifers kept 

 as cows practically first crosses. These and their daughters were 

 again put to Aberdeen- Angus bulls, when Short-horn bulls were 

 again brought in for several generations, and so on alternating 

 between Short-horns and Aberdeen- Angus sires (always pure-bred 

 herd-book animals), the farmers possessing herds of cows the 

 direct female descendants of cows owned by their grandfathers. 



I do not know as I need say anything more on this subject. 

 The blend of the two breeds is a mixture which produces a class of 

 cattle having no equal as a rent-paying stock in this country ; and 

 speaking from my own observation I believe it matters little how 

 the mixture is concocted so long as it is Short-horn and Aberdeen- 

 Angus, the judgment of the breeder being brought into play in 

 determining the amount of either of the two factors. It must, 

 nowever, be borne in mind that even this valuable mixture couli 

 not produce the Prime Scots which the London West End butch- 

 ers sell at such high prices and which the " upper ten " are please i 

 to pay for if the North Country farmers ever allowed their young stock ts 

 lose their calf flesh. To produce the high-selling article an ox ought 

 to be fit to kill any time during his life, and the question of the 

 proper age for slaughter entirely depends upon markets and such 

 like circumstances. Many people unacquainted with the North- 

 ern cattle say the first cross is the only right one, but you may go 

 from farm to farm in the North of Scotland where, as I have said, 

 nothing but cross-bred cows have been bred in the family for gen- 

 erations and yet the farmers pride themselves on their herds of 

 cows cows that produce steers to top the London market. 



