104 SHORTHORNS 



far side of the village the landscape, with its blocks 

 of timber and water-worn scoops, rises into rounded 

 knolls and curving uplands, which block the view to 

 the Southern Grampians. The best portion by far of 

 Mr Hunter's 120-acres property is on the top and with 

 a slight dip towards the east. Otherwise, there are 

 burning spots near the whinstone should a season 

 prove unusually droughty. 



Mr Hunter set out on his course as a regular 

 Shorthorn breeder in 1909 by acquiring from the 

 Earl of Moray a representative of the highly suc- 

 cessful Meg Merrilies family by Diamond Earl 

 (98,591). She bred remarkably well at Arngask. 

 Two excellent young cows out of her were sold in 

 1918 to Mr Leslie Smith for export to the States, 

 and they averaged 300 each in the West. The 

 old cow's family is now kept in a fairly safe position 

 in Mr Hunter's herd by a couple of thoroughly 

 typical females. In 1912 an Emmeline and a Miss 

 Ramsden were bought for Arngask from the late 

 Sir James Sivewright and the Messrs Kerr, Loch- 

 lane, CriefF. The Emmeline, which was own sister 

 to one of the best- breeding cows at Tulliallan, proved 

 a sound investment. The Miss Ramsden, which was 

 by the famous Millhills stock bull Collynie Cruick- 

 shank, was out of the same dam as the heifer which 

 founded one of the best families at Balthayock. From 

 his Miss Ramsden Mr Hunter has bred female animals 

 which have distinguished themselves in the herds of 

 Mr Wylie Hill, Mr Thos. Kirk of Abbey Mains, and 

 Mr Peter Wilson, Lawhill. One of her sons, Ramsden 



