166 SHORTHORNS 



are now proving their high qualities. In the favourite 

 old families there is remarkable uniformity of char- 

 acter, and the milking powers have been well pre- 

 served. To his old friend and neighbour, the late 

 Mr Duncan Stewart, Mr Dron has been greatly in- 

 debted for the use of front-rank bulls. Then he has 

 always acted on the sound principle of keeping the 

 best heifers. As a rule, he has had no difficulty in 

 disposing of his surplus heifers privately. The farm, 

 which was bought by Mr Dron a few years ago, lies 

 pleasantly to the sun. Most of it is a loam of very 

 fair body, and stock thrive well on it. 



DALCAPON. 



Once upon a time breeders of Highland cattle held 

 command on the airy Braes of Tullymet, overlooking 

 the magnificent valleys of Tummel and Tay, but at 

 Dalcapon, on the Atholl estate, above Ballinluig, 

 Shorthorns have been bred since the sixties of last 

 century. The late Mr Donald Fergusson, a represen- 

 tative of one of the oldest families in the Yale of 

 Atholl, and a man who was admired and respected 

 by all classes, began to breed a few Shorthorns in 

 the early sixties. He bought the highest-priced bull 

 at Messrs Macdonald, Fraser, & Co.'s first sale in 1865. 

 That was Colonel Williamson's Harry (27,391), Eoyal 

 Harry (27,367), which cost 36 gs., a figure then ac- 

 counted too high for a man who kept non-registered 

 and crossing stock. Mr Fergusson did not take up 

 registration on exporting lines until the eighties. In 



