214 CATTLE 



crofters (small farm renters) kept ; the other a larger kind, some 

 black, some brindled, which more readily submitted to Shorthorn 

 blood than did the former, and lacked its power of reproduction 

 of polled character. 



The earliest improvers of Aberdeen Angus cattle include the 

 Watson family, William McCombie, Lord Panmure, Lord South- 

 esk, William Fullerton, Mr. Bowie at Mains of Kelly, Sir George 

 Macpherson Grant, and Mr. Robert Walker. Numerous other 

 breeders materially assisted in the improvement during the first 

 third of the nineteenth century, though none of these accom- 

 plished as much as the first two named. 



Hugh Watson of Keillor, Meigle, Forfar, was the first really 

 great Aberdeen Angus improver, the Colling of this breed. He 

 was born in 1789, became a tenant at Keillor in 1808, and 

 remained there 56 years, dying in 1865. His father and grand- 

 father were lovers of good cattle, and when Hugh went to Keil- 

 lor he took six cows and a bull, all black, with him. He also 

 bought the same year at Brechin ten of the best heifers of various 

 colors that he could find, and a black bull named Tarnty Jock. 

 Most writers assume that Watson began his work of improvement 

 on settling at Keillor, but his daughter states that this did not 

 begin until about 1815 or 1816, his ambition being aroused by 

 a visit to the English Shorthorn country. Watson in-and-in bred 

 and produced a more early-maturing, heavier-fleshed, blockier type 

 that dressed out better than ever before. He also emphasized 

 family lines and bred each family rather within itself. His bull 

 Old Jock (i), calved in 1842, a great-grandson of Tarnty Jock, 

 was his most valuable sire, possessing remarkable quality and 

 constitution, and was a famous show animal. Watson's most 

 famous cow, Old Grannie (i), was one of the wonders of the 

 bovine race. She lived to be 36 years old and had 25 calves, the 

 last, a bull of merit, Hugh (130), being dropped in her twenty- 

 ninth year; Watson won hundreds of prizes at the shows and 

 did much to improve and popularize the breed. 



William McCombie was born at Tillyfour, Aberdeen, in 1805 

 and died in 1880, a few months before the dispersal of his herd. 

 In 1830 he began a polled herd and purchased from the best 

 breeders of his county. He was a great believer in the importance 



