142 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



that these quantities give 5 gallons per day for the newly calved cow, and 4 gallons 

 per day for the one three months calved, equal at 10^ pounds to the gallon to 56 and 

 47 pounds of milk per day, respectively. With ordinary feeding the weight of cows at 

 maturity would vary from 1,100 to 1,500 pounds, the dead weight of these being about 

 7 to 9 cwt. Many cases at Smithfield exceed 2,000 pounds live Aveight. Bulls, if fed 

 well all their lives (which they usually are), weigh from 2,000 to 2,400 pounds at 

 maturity. With reference to the age of the cows, they have been known to live over 

 thirty years, and 'it is not uncommon to find some of the age of twenty years which 

 are fresh and breeding. The proportion of meat at maturity of a fattened steer varies 

 from 60 pounds per 100 pounds of live weight, to as high as 73 pounds per 100 pounds. 

 The average steer in the Aberdeenshire district at two years and nine or ten mouths, 

 when most of them are sold, weigh from 7 to 10 cwt., dead weight. The soil of the 

 district is poor and cold, but has been greatly improved by draining, liming, &c., 

 and the grasses mostly cultivated are rye-grass, and red, white, and alsike clovers. 

 Many of the cattle are still used for draft purposes, especially in plowing and break- 

 ing up new land. Aberdeenshire was mostly reclaimed by the " twal oxen plow," 

 managed by two men, " a plowman and a gansinan," and an old saying illustrates 

 best how farmers thrived in olden times, viz : 



"He that by the plow wad thrive 

 Maun either haud or drive." 



That is, must either hold the plow or drive the oxen. The system of feeding 

 varies somewhat in different localities, but the following is the most common, viz : 

 From 1st to 10th May to middle of October the cattle go out on the grass in inclosed 

 fields, but feeding-cattle are turned into the house a month earlier. From the middle 

 of October to May the cattle in Aberdeen and Banffshiro are generally tied up by the 

 neck. In Moray 'and Inverness, north of Aberdeen, young cattle are fed in covered 

 courts. The feed, in each case, turnips and oat straw only. In some cases young 

 heifers and bulls get from 1^ to 2 pounds of linseed cake daily after weaning till early 

 spring. The reason so little is known as to the milk-producing properties of the race 

 is because the calves mostly all suckle their danis from five to six months, when the 

 cows are allowed to dry off. 



(12) SHETLAND CATTLE. 



Perhaps the least-known race of cattle in Great Britain is the Shet- 

 land, which is by no means a large one, and is almost entirely in the 

 hands of one great nobleman, the Marquis of Londonderry. We are 

 unable to obtain an illustration of the cattle, but we are indebted to 

 to Mr. Brydon, the popular steward of the marquis, for the following 

 particulars. He says : 



I am unable to give statistics as to the capabilities in the dairy of the Shetland 

 cattle, but I know that when well fed they are good milkers and that the milk is 

 rich. We use them chiefly for nursing calves, and wo cannot get cows of any other 

 breed on which they do so well. I can give lots of instances of this, but, at the mo- 

 inent, I remember one in particular. W T e had on the farm a little Shetland cow which 

 calved about the 1st of June, and as she seemed to have a lot of milk we procured an- 

 other calf and made her nurse the pair. Both calves were sold by auction when 

 eleven months old, and the pair realized 43, the purchaser beiug a butcher. Of 

 course the cow had cake and meal during the winter. The first cross from a Shet- 

 land by a Shorthorn bull also makes a very good cow. 



The native homo of the Shetland cattle is, as might be supposed, the Shetland 

 Isles, which are situated between 59 51' and 60 51' north latitude, and 41' and 

 1 50' west longitude. The rocks are all primary, gneiss, granite, quartz, and stone 

 slate being the prevailing formations, but in some parts there is a coarse variety of 

 the old red' sandstone and conglomeration. A great part of the surface is covered with 



E eat, though there are generally green patches close to the sea. The hills are not 

 igh, only one in the whole group measuring 1,400 feet. The temperature is higher 

 in winter and lower in summer than that of the Scottish mainland, the mean being 

 stated as 45 5'. Grass grows luxuriantly for a short time in summer, but in winter 

 and spring, the islands present a bare, barren appearance. 



The cattle have a hard life of it through, and as calves they scarcely get any 

 milk, that being kept for other purposes. In spring they are so reduced with poverty 

 that any one not acquainted with them could hardly suppose it possible they would 

 come round, and yet a short time on coarse keep makes them look fresh and well. 1 

 have seen them thrive well on pasture where other and finer-bred catile could not live. 

 As may be expected, the treatment to which they are subjected stunts their growth, 

 but if well fed when young they become very little less than other breeds. 



