98 FIELD AND FERX. 



trade of the North in their bands, and sold to the 

 M'Combies, the Williamsons or "the Staleys," and 

 other lean- stock dealers who drove the cattle South. 

 No men were more respected in their day ; und the 

 same line of business has been taken up by James 

 M'Donald, the tenant of Blackhillock and Blervie, 

 who knows every seller for 100 miles North and South 

 of Torres, and thinks nothing of driving his little 

 brown horse thirty miles in a morning before others 

 are stirring. He collects cattle from all points of 

 the compass, sorts them and lots them, freshens 

 them up on grass and turnips, and sells them out 

 again, by tens, twenties, or thirties, to the farmers ; 

 and, in short, nearly three-fourths of the cattle may 

 be said to go through his hands. rt 



Breeding has not extended much, but the bulls 

 and the keep are better ; and a white bull, as in Eng- 

 land, has no special welcome. The breeders have not 

 adopted the system, which once obtained to some ex- 

 tent in Banffshire, of " getting a calf for nothing" 

 from two-year-olds. They do not consider that the 

 calf pays for the deterioration in the dam, which 

 must be kept yeld for one more year, in order to 

 recover its handling and prove well at the block, and 

 even then the London butchers look suspiciously at 

 the dugs. The stores are generally drawn from Ross- 

 shire and Caithness, but Yorkshire calves, which are 

 bought at five to seven months, and sold again as 

 yearlings, have been the sheet-anchor latterly ; and 

 as long as the supply lasts, farmers will not care to 



