FOCHABERS TO SITTYTON. 127 



them quite on a par in flesh with the West High- 

 lander. The breed was at the Forglen home-farm 

 when the Ogilvies were the laird s, and began as fol- 

 lows. The last Lord Banff's mother procured two 

 Devonshire cows and one bull, whose produce were 

 for some time kept pure. They were crossed with 

 the native horned breed, and then with the Aberdeen 

 polls, and from them came the fine yellow cows, 

 known as the Forglen breed. Shortly after the late 

 Sir Robert Abercromby came to reside at Forglen, 

 he commenced breeding from the Eden herd, and 

 nearly twenty years of crossing has made the old 

 yellow breed hardly distinguishable from pure 

 shorthorns. The lady who introduced the Devons 

 was great-grandmother to the present baronet, who 

 inherits much of her taste for cattle and other im- 

 provements. 



What seemed to many the mere enthusiasm of 

 yesterday in the late Mr. Grant Duff has proved the 

 wisdom of to-day. He quite rises into prophecy in 

 some of his foot-notes, when he utters a warning 

 voice against overfeeding for shows, disregard of 

 pedigree, and careless crossing. A cross-bred bull 

 was his aversion ; and he gave it as his experience 

 that, although, you could not perhaps do great 

 harm by putting a Shorthorn West-Highland bull 

 to a poll or a Poll-Shorthorn cow, the union of simi- 

 lar crosses never succeeds. He never wearied of 

 proclaiming the virtue of that West-Highland cross 

 with a shorthorn of which breeders are now seeing 



