Chapter XXXIX. 



GALLOWAYS. 



These cattle derive their name from the province of Galloway, 

 lying in the southwest portion of Scotland, to which locality they trace a 

 long line of polled ancestry. The breed is among the oldest, authentic 

 history carrying it back to the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, and 

 tradition asserting that there was never a time when Galloway cattle 

 did not exist in their native province ; moreover, the main distinguish- 

 ing points of the breed were the same then as now, subject only to 

 progressive change from careful selection and management. 



Improvement in the Galloway breed was largely stimulated by the 

 extensive purchases of Scotch polled cattle by the English soon after the 

 union of England and Scotland. The Scotch breeders, knowing that the 

 cattle sold were to travel on foot throughout the greater part of Eng- 

 land, vied with each other in attempting to furnish the best animals. It 

 is worthy of note that the improvement of the Galloway has been ef- 

 fected almost entirely by skillful selection, judicious feeding and careful 

 management a fact which accounts, in fixedness of breeding, for their 

 present remarkable prepotency. 



Although an old breed, the records date only from recent time 

 all pedigrees and papers relating to the breed having been destroyed by 

 fire at Edinburgh in 1851. From 1851 to 1878, they were recorded with 

 the Angus and other polled stock in the Polled Herd Book ; in 1878 

 Galloway breeders published separately the first volume of the Galloway 

 Herd Book of Great Britain, and in 1883 appeared the first volume of 

 the North American Galloway Herd Book the register now used for 

 American-bred Galloways. 



While black has always been the prevailing color, there were for- 

 merly many well bred individuals of other colors, and one of the most 

 apparent improvements made by later breeders has been to eliminate 

 variety in color and reduce the breed to its present standard, namely, 

 black in winter with a brownish tinge. It must be borne in mind, 

 however, that this peculiarity still shows itself in an occasional rever- 

 sion to dun or drab ; and such animals, while inferior in selling value, 

 are nevertheless as purely bred as the most sable of their kind. We had 

 on the College Farm, a heifer now dead dropped in 1886, got by 

 Admiral Good, 1184, Am. G. H. B., out of Admiration, 1186, Am. G. H. 



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