956 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTUEE. Part III. 



worked from three to six years old, sometimes till seven,when they are turned oif 

 for feeding. The Hereford cattle are next in size to the Yorkshire short- horns : 

 both this and the Gloucester variety are highly eligible as dairy stock, and the 

 females of the Herefords have been found to fatten better at three years old than 

 any other kind of cattle except the spayed heifers of Norfolk, {MarsliaVs Ecojiomy of 

 Gloucestershire. ) 



61 15. The polled or hornless breeds. The most numerous and esteemed variety is the 

 Galloway breed {Jig. 644. ), so called from the pro- 644 



vince of that name, in the south-west of Scotland, 

 where they most abound. The true Galloway bul- 

 lock " is straight and broad on the back, and nearly 

 level from the head to the rump, broad at the loins, 

 not, however, with hooked bones, or projecting 

 knobs, so that when viewed from above, the whole 

 body appears beautifully rounded ; he is long in the 

 quarters, but not broad in the twist ; he is deep in 

 the chest, short in the leg, and moderately fine in 

 the bone, clean in the chop and in the neck ; his 

 head is of a moderate size, with large rough ears, and full, but not prominent eyes, or 

 heavy eyebrows, so that he has a calm though determined look ; his well-proportioned 

 form is clothed with a loose and mellow skin, adorned with long soft glossy hair." 

 {Galloway Report, p. 236.) The prevailing color is black or dark-brindled, and, 

 though they are occasionally found of every color, the dark colors are uniformly 

 preferred, from a belief that they are connected with superior hardiness of consti- 

 tution. The Galloways are rather undersized, not very diiferent from the size of the 

 Devons, but as much less than the long horns, as the long horns are less than the 

 short horns. On the best farms, the average weight of bullocks three years and a half 

 old, when the greater part of them are driven to the south, has been stated at about 

 forty stone, avoirdupois, some of them, fattened in England, have been brought to 

 nearly one hundred stone. 



6116. The general properties of this breed are well known in almost every part of England, as well as in 

 Scotland. They are sometimes sent from their native pastures directly to Smith field, a distance of four 

 hundred miles, and sold at once to the butcher; and in spring, they are often shown in Norfolk, immedi- 

 ately after their arrival, in as good condition as, or even better than, when they began their journey ; with 

 full feeding, there is perhaps no breed that sooner attains maturity, and their flesh is of the finest quality. 

 CuUey was misinformed about the quantity of milk they yield, which, though rich, is by no means abun- 

 dant ; it is alleged not to be more than seventy or eighty years since the Galloways were all horned, and 

 very much the same in external appearance and character, with the breed of black cattle which prevailed 

 over the west of Scotland at that period, and which still abound in perfection, the largest sized ones in 

 Argyleshjre, and the smaller in the Isle of Skye ; the Galloway cattle, at the time alluded to, were coupled 

 with some hornless bulls, of a sort which do not seem now to be accurately known, but which were then 

 brought from Cumberland, the effects of which crossing were thought to be the general loss of horns in 

 the former, and the enlargement of their size : the continuance of a hornless sort being kept up by select- 

 ing only such for breeding, or, perhaps, by other means, as by the practice of eradicating with the knife, 

 the horns in their very young state. {Coventry on Live Stock, p. 28.) 



6117. The Suffolk duns, according to Culley, are nothing more than a variety of the 

 Galloway breed : he supposes them to have originated in the intercourse that has long 

 subsisted between the Scotch drovers of Galloway cattle, and the Suffolk and Norfolk 

 graziers who feed them. The Suffblks are almost all light duns, thus differing from the 

 Galloways, and are considered a very useful kind of little cattle, particularly for the 

 dairy. (Cullei/, p. 66. Parkinson, vol. i. p. 116.) 



6118. The cattle of the Highlands of Scotland are divided into a number of local 

 varieties, some of which differ materially from others, probably owing to a difference in 

 the climate and the quality of the herbage, rather than to their being sprung from races 

 originally distinct, or to any great change effected either by selection or by crossing 

 with other breeds. It is only of late that much attention has been paid to their im- 

 provement, in any part of this extensive country ; and in the northern and central 

 Highlands the cattle are yet, for the most part, in as rude a state, and under manage- 

 ment as defective, as they were some centuries ago. These cattle have almost exclusive 

 possession of all that division of Scotland, including the Hebrides, marked off by a line 

 from the Frith of Clyde on the west, to the Murray Frith on the north, and bending 

 towards the east till it approaches in some places very near to the German ocean. Along 

 the eastern coast, north of the Frith of Forth, the Highland cattle are intermixed with 

 various local breeds, of which they have probably been the basis. There are more or 

 less marked distinctions among the cattle of the different Highland counties ; and, in 

 common language, we speak of the Inverness-shire, the Banffshire, &c. cattle, as if they 

 were so many separate breeds ; but it is only necessary in this place to notice the two 

 more general varieties, now clearly distinguishable by their form, size, and general pro- 

 perties. 



6119. The most valuable of these are the ca/e of the Western Highlands and Isles, 



