92 FIELD AND FERN. 



stunted in their growth, and the offspring are no 

 friends to the grazier. If they come without horns 

 they command better prices, just as a West Highland 

 "down horn" is thought to feed kindlier; but, as 

 M'Combie says of the Galloways, <e they are sad 

 sluggish dogs to feed," and very slow waxers. If 

 they have a brown back, they are worse by three de- 

 grees, and buyers hate to look at them. Taking even 

 the better sorts, the grazier would make only 1 out of 

 them for every % out of a well-bred black or cross- 

 bred, but still some of the lowlanders take them in 

 preference to the West Highland. The pick of Mr. 

 Anderson's stock are at Kildrummie, which has also 

 earned a name for Clydesdales and pigs of the Prince 

 Albert breed. Privy Seal, one of the five " Seal" 

 bull-calves, all by Lord Privy Seal, and headed by 

 Great Seal at the Hill Head sale in 'GO, is in resi- 

 dence as chief of the shorthorn division. This good- 

 looking roan is a winner both in Morayshire and 

 Nairnshire, and was just fresh from a seven -guineas 

 victory on Elgin Green. 



To Mr. Smith's exertions at Hill Head shorthorn 

 breeding and crossing in these parts is very deeply in- 

 debted. That neck of land close by Fort St. George, 

 half of it light loam on clay, and the other half sharp 

 and sandy, was not a promising home for shorthorns. 

 Before Mr. Smith took to it in 1841, the Government 

 had been in the habit of letting it yearly, and it had 

 been pretty well scourged in consequence; while heaps 

 of stones and whin bushes did not add to its attrac- 



