ALLOA TO SKYE. 369 



are 5 ft. deep, and on sound 3 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. 

 The former is ploughed five inches deep after drain- 

 ing, and then sown with oats. After the next plough- 

 ing, lime is harrowed in before ridging, and it is ma- 

 nured with 1 to 2 cwt. of superphosphate per acre, as 

 well as farmyard dung. Under such treatment, as 

 the bailiff William Stewart expresses it, the peat 

 may well " melt like snuff." 



"The Black Cattle," as West Highlanders 

 are always termed in Argyllshire, have a title of 

 fully seventy years at Duntroon. The first bull of 

 note was purchased about five years later, along with 

 several cows, from a herd in the island of Shuna ; 

 and those of Major M'Donald of Corrie Broadford, 

 Isle of Skye, M'Donald of Monachyle, Stewart of 

 Duntulm, M'Claren of Camuseroch, and the late Mar- 

 quis of Breadalbane (from whom Crinan was bought) 

 have all furnished "kings in their turn." Forty 

 years since, some choice cows and heifers came from 

 George Sixth Duke of Argyll, and more recently from 

 the Breadalbane sale, and Mr. John Campbell's of 

 Lochead. There are about fifty cows in all ; and a 

 glimpse from the steamer deck of Duntroon, 

 the brindled bull, as he wondered along the sh ore 

 near Duntroon castle, with the dun cow* (which also 

 won at Battersea) and a calf at her side, recalled those 

 " bull, cow, and offspring" groups which Hereford- 

 shire loves so dearly. Mr. Malcolm enters pretty 

 freely into showing, and the Highland Society 

 has no steadier adherent each August. Some very 



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