SITTYTON TO ABERDEEN. 149 



of them with ten or eleven crosses in them, have 

 the pick of 500 acres. The soil is rather light 

 and sharp, and grows turnips to a great size. Its 

 subsoil is the great secret of successful feeding in 

 Aberdeenshire, and Formartine, with its light yellow 

 loam, and the Yale of Alforcl dispute the grazing 

 palm. In the former the grass is rather earlier, but 

 Alford has more shelter. With liberal top-dressing 

 cattle can be got into the pastures by May morning 

 all over the county, but May 10th is the average 

 time. This grass is pretty fresh till " St. Partridge 

 day;" but at Tillyfour, the two last weeks of July 

 and the two first of August are quite the best. 



Mr. Moir works entirely with " shorthorn crosses/* 

 His uncle, who dwelt at Ardlethen, began with Ber- 

 tram, a Phantassie bull ; and the nephew made his first 

 breeding essay at Tarty with a cross of Jerry and 

 Bertram blood. After that, he used Ury bulls, and 

 had a slice of the redoubtable Pacha, as well as of 

 Cruickshank's Fairfax Royal and The Baron. His 

 three-year-olds last year were by Shepherd of She- 

 thin's Red Knight, his twos and his yearlings by 

 Cruickshanfs Lord Stanley (16454), and his calves 

 by Shepherd's Earl of Elgin (20170) ; and Duke of 

 Leeds by Lord Raglan was there, to speak for 

 himself, tethered to a stake under a pictur- 

 esque shelter of rocks and trees. His calves run 

 for about six or seven months with the cow, and 

 he cuts from twelve to fifteen every year fourteen days 

 after their birth. About September 10th they are 



