ABERDEEN TO STONEHAVEN. 193 



By way of testing whether it was more profitable 

 to tie up or feed in open hammels, he selected, in '34 ? 

 eight two-year-olds and eight threes, on which to 

 try the different systems at Kingcausie and Bal- 

 muto. Oat straw and yellow turnips were their 

 fare, and the profit at the end of six months was 

 very decidedly in favour of the younger beasts in the 

 open hammels. He began shorthorns at the estate 

 which came to him in gradual descent "from my 

 trusty cousin of Balmuto"; but, after all, cattle 

 were with him an acquired taste, and his heart was 

 with the greys. When he went to see his friends, 

 Bates and the Maynards, and arrived back with a 

 shorthorn or two, the men at the Aberdeen pier 

 would have wondered what had come over " King- 

 causie" if there had not been a mare to unship as 

 well. Two long Kirklevington days with " Tommy 

 Bates," who poured out his whole soul to him in the 

 pastures and over the Duke of Northumberland in 

 the calf-house, were among his happiest in England. 

 His first stock were dun and black horned Aber- 

 deens; then he kept a few polls, and crossed 

 them with a shorthorn bull; and finally, he deserted 

 to shorthorns altogether, and always kept roans, if 

 possible. 



At the Highland Society, he only showed fat stock; 

 and he won in the younger class with a red bullock at 

 Aberdeen in 1834. Lord Kintore's celebrated black 

 headed the old class ; and to insure him arriving fresh, 

 he sent his own to Aberdeen a day sooner, and or- 



o 



