ANGLESEA CATTLE. 211 



blood; the colour becomes destroyed and the type broken, 

 and the produce cannot be reduced to an uniform standard. 

 Endeavours in this direction have been fruitless. An improved 

 type of Angleseas must be evolved from themselves, as must 

 also be the case with the Pembrokeshire breed. But, as the 

 only possible cross of the latter not evidently retrogressive is 

 with the Angleseas, so the cattle of North Wales allow of no 

 fresh blood except perhaps that of their kindred in South 

 Wales ; and a writer in Morton's " Cyclopaedia of Agriculture " 

 suggests this cross as the best, and one calculated to improve 

 them in many important points. 



Of late years great efforts have been made to improve the 

 breed, and with considerable success. They have been honoured 

 with a " North Wales Black Cattle Herd-book," the second 

 volume of which was published last year (1886). The number 

 of bulls registered is 138, and of cows 411. The most energetic 

 and untiring of their advocates and the most eminent of their 

 breeders is Colonel Henry Piatt, of Gorddinog, Bangor. The 

 gallant colonel in a letter which lies before me writes, " I find 

 a well-reared Welsh beast will make as much or more weight 

 than most of the English breeds. At Islington every year the 

 Welsh runts are amongst the heaviest cattle exhibited. I have 

 taken three first prizes and one second at the Minnesota State 

 Fair in America this autumn [1886], and have succeeded in 

 making the Americans who saw them most anxious to possess 

 some bulls to cross with their grade cattle. Welsh is the 

 coming breed; they have everything to commend them." He 

 dolefully adds, "Is it not sad to think that when a demand 

 arises from the other side we shall not be able to meet it ? Our 

 farmers, most sad to say, are selling their two-year-old heifers 

 by hundreds to the butcher ! " 



Like the black cattle of South Wales those of North Wales 

 out of Anglesea are good milkers. A small herd of dairy cows 

 of the breed has been established by Captain Eoss, of St. 

 Alban's, Herts, with great success. One of this herd a few 

 years ago took first prize at the dairy show of the British Dairy 

 Farmers' Association held at Islington. 



Cattle like the Angleseas and the Pembrokes should require 

 no apology for their existence or cultivation into an improved 



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