484 



XEW EXGLAM) FARMER. 



Oct. 



ifH 



|r Mj'''^M''^2:®^'"'^^no«^^^^b'*^;^/ ^te 



■WEST HIGHLAINTD CO\\r, 



We present the above cut of a West High- 

 land cow as the representative of a race of 

 cattle that have not as yet been introduced 

 into this country. The portrait was drawn 

 for Mr. Allen's book on American Cattle, by 

 Mr. Page, who visited Yorkshire county, Eng- 

 land, in 1867. 



Mr. Youatt says, "The value of the West 

 Highland cattle consists in their being hardy, 

 and easily fed ; in that they will live, and 

 sometimes thrive, on the coarsest pastures ; 

 that they will frequently gain from a fourth to 

 a third of their original weight in six months' 

 good feeding ; that the proportion of ofFil is 

 not greater than in the most improved larger 

 breeds ; that they will lay their flesh and f^t 

 equally on the best parts ; and that, when fat, 

 the beef is clrsed fine in the grain, highly 

 flavored, and so well mixed or marbled, that 

 it commands a superior price in every market 



"The different islands of the Hebrides con- 

 tain about one hundred and fifty thousand of 

 these cattle, of which it is calculated that one- 

 fifth are sent annually to the main land. 



"About one hundred and fifty years ago, 

 the treatment of cattle at the Hebrides was, 

 with very few exceptions, absurd and ruin- 



ous, to a strange degree, through the whole 

 of the islands. With the exception of the 

 milk cows, and not even of the calves, they 

 were all wintered in the field ; it they were 

 scantily fed with hay, it was coarse, and with- 

 ered, and half- rotten ; or if they got a little 

 straw, they were thought to be well tikeri 

 care of. The majority got little more than 

 sea-weed, heather, and rushes. OQe-fi,fth of 

 the cattle, on an average, used to perish every 

 winter from starvation. When the cold had 

 been unusually severe, and the snow had lain 

 long on th.1 ground, one-half of the stock has 

 been lost, and the remainder have afterwards 

 been thinned by the diseases which poverty- 

 had engendered. 



"It proved the excellency of the breed, that 

 in the course of two or three months so many 

 of them got again into good store condition, 

 and might almost be said to be half-fj,t, and 

 could scarcely be restrained l)y any f^nce ; In 

 fact, there are numerous instances of these 

 cattle, which had been reduced to the most 

 (ireadfal state of Impoverishment, becoming 

 fattened for the butcher In a few months, after 

 being placed on some of the rich summer pas- 

 tures of Islay, Lewis, or Syke. 



