WEST HIGHLAND CATTLE. 177 



importation places animal food of a kind within the reach of 

 almost all classes, the best home-fed meat will always bring the 

 highest price, and be used by those whose means enable them 

 to command it. The means of internal transit by rail and 

 steamer are now so developed that distance from the great 

 centres of population and demand, is a matter of comparatively 

 little moment, and the traffic in live and dead stock has become 

 one of the most important and active in this country, especially 

 between the north of Scotland and the great English towns. 



The breeds of feeding cattle chiefly reared in Scotland are the 

 Shorthorn, the Black Polled, the West Highland, and crosses. 



In Scotland, as in other countries, Shorthorns for long held 

 the field against all other breeds, but of late years the Black 

 Polled breed of Angus and Aberdeenshires has been coming 

 prominently to the front, especially in the north of Scotland, 

 and as fashion appears to prevail in stock-breeding, as well as 

 in lighter and less practical departments of human industry, it 

 is to be hoped that the day of Highland cattle is coming too. 

 As a step in this direction, there was formed, chiefly through 

 the efforts of the Earl of Dunmore, who has himself a large fold 

 of Highland Cattle in the Isle of Harris, the " Highland Cattle 

 Society of Scotland," having for its object to maintain the 

 purity of the breed of Highland cattle, and to establish a Herd 

 Book as a record of pedigrees. The society was estabhshed at 

 a meeting held in Edinburgh at the Centenary Show of the 

 Highland and Agricultural Society in July, 1884, with the Duke 

 of Athole as president, and Mr. Duncan Shaw, W.S., of Inver- 

 ness, as secretary, and in 1885 was published under Mr. Shaw's 

 care, the first volume of the Herd Book recording the pedigrees 

 of 561 Highland bulls, the record being mainly retrospective ; 

 and a volume for cows is now in forward preparation. 



Of the purely Scotch breeds of cattle the Highland, though 

 not now so numerous as it once was, nor so highly prized as 

 some of the southern breeds, deserves special attention, not only 

 on account of its being the original breed of the west, and of a 

 great part of the north of Scotland, but also on account of its 

 importance in point of numbers, its suitableness to the climate 

 and herbage of a great extent of country, its quality as food, 

 and its value as a bi 3ed to cross with. It is very difficult to 



