FOCHABERS TO SITTYTON. 121 



the foot, in order to prevent navicular disease. Pro- 

 fessor Dick holds, on the contrary that navicular dis- 

 ease arises in the first instance from a strain of the 

 tendon in the navicular bursa, and is not in any 

 way connected with the shoeing. In Edinburgh, 

 you will sometimes see a horse with three tons on 

 a lorry ; and an old blackhorse of seventeen hands 

 once drew a printing-press, which weighed with the 

 lorry above five tons, three miles on the rise, all the 

 way from Granton to Catherine-street. Black is as 

 common a colour as any for Clydesdales. Many of 

 the breed are rather small and sour in the eye as 

 well as flat in the rib ; and side-bones, feet flatness, 

 and weak heels are rather common among them. 

 Professor Dick considers that most of their ail- 

 ments arise from too long yokings and fastings ; and 

 colic, distension, and rupture of the bowels are the 

 natural results of gorging at meal- times. 



Banffshire has long had yearnings after shorthorns. 

 Mr. William .Robertson, of Stoney Ley, got some 

 cows and a bull direct from Holland ; but they were 

 big and rough, and when crossed with the common 

 cows of the country, the coats became papery and the 

 flesh light. It is upwards of forty years since Jerry, 

 a massive white, came as a present to the Rev. Mr. 

 Douglas of Ellon, and worked a great reform. He 

 was bred by Rennie of Phantassie, whose array of 

 white bulls had made quite a sensation when the 

 Highland Society first met at Edinburgh in '27. The 

 late Mr. Wilson, who was factor to Lord Seafield at 



