180 FIELD AND FERX. 



tenths of his supplies. Forfarshire, Aberdeenshire, 

 and Banffshire are also placed under contribution, 

 but lie does not care much for the Caithness and 

 Ross-shire crosses. " Moray shire for sweetness and 

 quality" is a cardinal point of his creed ; and he at- 

 tributes this superiority in a great measure to the 

 quality of their cows, and their county habit of keep- 

 ing the beasts in the straw-yards. He would readily 

 give 1 to 30s. more for a straw-yard bullock, as he 

 finds them thrive so much better when they are put 

 to grass. Elgin and Torres are his principal mar- 

 kets, once a month, from December to July, but the 

 owners send him word, and the great majority of the 

 beasts are bought at their own yards. Only one year 

 has he missed the great Elgin April market, viz., when 

 he accompanied his bullocks to Poissy, and then For- 

 farshire stood in the breach with forty. Captain Ken- 

 nedy, of Stranraer, in Wigtonshire, used to send him 

 a lot of Galloways every year ; and it was from him 

 that he got the black steer, which was first at 

 Birmingham and Baker- street in 1860. These curly 

 heroes of the shaggy frontlet, the thick hide, the odd 

 placed eye, and fan-haired ear, are often better in the 

 thigh, but invariably bigger in their timber and more 

 sluggish feeders than the Anguses; still they will 

 pick up their crumbs royally on the poorest hill land ; 

 and this prize winner weighed 14 cwt. clean, and 

 realized 55. 



All the bullocks are tied up by the middle of Sep- 

 tember, and begin to go to the markets at the end 



