CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



the best parts, and when fat, the beef is fine in 

 the grain, and so well mixed or marbled that it 

 ! tuts a superior price in every market. 

 About 30,000 of these are annually sent from 

 the Hebrides to the main land. (On Cattle, p. 67.) 

 In the Hebrides, the dairy is only attended to 

 so far as to serve the family with milk, butter 

 and cheese. The milk of the Western High- 

 land cow is smal^ in quantity, but excellent in 

 quality; she does not yield, however, more 

 than one-third of that of the Ayrshire. The 

 oxen of the Hebrides are never worked. (Ibid 

 p. 71.) 



The Argyleshire breed are larger than those 

 of the Hebrides, and are bred according to 

 what the soil and the food will best support. 

 The Highlander, however (says the gentleman 

 . whom I have in this article quoted so often), 

 "must be reared for the grazier alone ; every 

 attention to increase his weight, in order to 

 make him capable of agricultural labour 

 every effort to qualify him for the dairy, will 

 not only lessen his hardiness of constitution 

 and propensity to fatten, but will fail in ren- 

 dering him valuable for the purpose at which 

 the farmer aims. The character of the High 

 lander must still be, that he will pay better for 

 his quantity of food than any other breed, and 

 will fatten where any other breed will scarcely 

 live."" (Ibid. p. 79.) 



Of the North Highland cattle, those of the 

 Shetland islands are the smallest; dwarfish, 

 ill-shaped, and covered with hair ; they some- 

 times are not more than 35 or 40 Ibs. to the 

 quarter. When they are taken to the north of 

 Scotland, they thrive and fatten on very poor 

 food with great rapidity; but when brought 

 further to the south, the change is too great for 

 them ; they languish and sicken. The Shet- 

 land calf suffers privations from her birth ; it 

 is, in fact, killed often as soon as it is born. It 

 is never allowed to suck its mother, but, if 

 reared, is fed at first with milk, and afterwards 

 with bland, a wretched kind of buttermilk; and 

 when it grows up it has nothing to subsist upon 

 but moss, heath, and sea-weed. The cows are 

 housed at night, and, in the absence of straw, 

 are littered with heath and the dust of peat. 

 Their milk, which is exceedingly rich, is very 

 small in quantity. 



In the northerly counties of Scotland, there 

 is nothing very peculiar in the breed of their 

 cattle. The introduction of sheep, and of bet- 

 ter modes of cultivating the soil, have gone far 

 to diminish the stocks of poor, ill-fed, and 

 worse managed breeding herds of this once 

 desolate extremity of the island. These im- 

 provements, however, were long opposed by 

 the husbandmen and the tenders of cattle as 

 bold innovations, which were, at all events, to 

 be opposed. Mobs, therefore, collected ; the 

 sheep were driven away ; fences destroyed; the 

 new farmers intimidated : the laws alone sup- 

 ported these national improvements to a suc- 

 cessful issue. 



The county of Aberdeen breeds more cattle 

 than any other in Scotland. Its stock has been 

 estimated at 112,000, and its annual sale of 

 both fat and lean cattle is equal to more than 

 20,000. These vary in character with the soil 

 and elevation : amongst the hills, they arc 

 37 



chiefly of the Highland breed; in the plains, a 

 better description has been produced, by breed- 

 ing from these by bulls from Fifeshire. The 

 horns of these, says Mr. Youatt, do not taper 

 so finely, nor stand so much upwards, as in 

 the West Highlanders ; and they are also 

 whiter; the hair is shorter and thinner; the 

 ribs cannot be said to be flat, but the chest is 

 deeper in proportion to the circumference, and 

 the buttocks and thighs are likewise thinner. 

 The colour is usually black, but sometimes 

 brindled ; they are heavier in carcass ; they 

 give a larger quantity of milk, but they do not 

 attain maturity so early as the West High- 

 landers, nor is their flesh quite so beautifully 

 marbled ; yet, at a proper age, they fatten as 

 readily as the others, not only on good pasture, 

 but on that which is somewhat inferior. They 

 are rarely used for husbandry work, or, at 

 most, for only one year. They are sent to ^russ 

 at four years old for six months, after which 

 they will weigh from 5 to 6 cwt. "The breed," 

 adds Mr. Youatt, ' has progressively improved, 

 and this by judicious selections from the native 

 stock: it has increased in size, and become 

 nearly double its weight, without losing its 

 propensity to fatten, and without growing above 

 its keep." There is also in this great agricul- 

 tural county an excellent breed of poll cattle; 

 they are not so handsome, yet larger than the 

 horned cattle; the quality of their meat is also 

 said not to be so good. The calves are reared 

 in Aberdeenshire much in the ordinary way. 

 They are commonly fed with milk warm from 

 the cow, and they are even sometimes reared 

 partly on oil-cakes. 



In Fifeshire the breed of cattle are of a very 

 superior description. "They are generally," 

 says Dr. Thompson, "of a black colour; the 

 horns small and white, generally pretty erect, 

 or, at least, turned up at the points, and bend- 

 ing rather forward ; the bone small in propor- 

 tion to the carcass ; the limbs clean but short, 

 and the skin soft; wide between the extreme 

 points of the hock-bones ; the ribs narrow and 

 wide set, having a greater curvature than in 

 other kinds, which gives the body a thick round 

 form; they fatten quickly, and fill up well at 

 all the choice points ; are hardy, fleet, and tra- 

 vel well ; are docile, and excellent for work." 

 Whatever may be the explanation of the fact, 

 it is certain that, at the present day, the Fife- 

 shire breed of cattle is peculiarly her own. 

 That they were centuries since improved by a 

 cross with the then small cattle of England, is 

 pretty certain; but whether English cattle 

 formed part of the dowry of Margaret, the 

 daughter of Henry VII. of England, when she 

 married James IV. of Scotland, or whether 

 English cattle were sent as a present to Scot- 

 and by James II. of England, is almost mere 

 matter of conjecture ; but, be that as it may, 

 ' the Fifeshire farmers," says Mr. Youatt, in 

 iis valuable work on cattle, "are convinced 

 hat their cattle cannot be further improved 

 as a whole by any foreign cross, and they con- 

 fine themselves to a judicious selection from 

 heir own." The pure Durhams have been 

 established in some parts of Fife, but not al- 

 ways without difficulty. 

 Ayrshire has a peculiarly fine breed of dairy 

 2B 289 



