CHAP. i. RED POLLED AND ABERDEEN-ANGUS BREEDS. 49 



the largest herds of Red Polls in the kingdom. The record shows that 

 the milk is only less rich in butter fat than that of the Jersey or 

 Guernsey, whilst, as a rule, the cows yield a much larger quantity, 

 taking the year round. At the same time they do not cost more to 

 keep than the Jerseys, and commonly carry their milk from one 

 calving almost to the date of calving again. Mr. Taylor remarks : 



" Red Polled cattle have been greatly appreciated in America as well 

 as in England on account of their being hornless. A breeder of race- 

 horses in the Midlands has bought several from me for the purpose of 

 turning them out to graze with brood mares on account of their pos- 

 sessing that quality. A still further example of the advantage of polled 

 cattle, especially when on long journeys, is seen in the Irish cattle im- 

 ported to England, the horns of which have been sawn or cut off the 

 better to perform the journey. They are also more saleable dis- 

 horned in our market, as they do not horn one another in the yards 

 when grazing, though the operation of dishorning must seriously affect 

 them for a time." 



Good dairy properties, high quality of flesh, and a ready tendency to 

 fatten, in cattle of medium size, not too large for poorish pasture, and 

 hardened to a coldish climate, are highly valuable characteristics, and, 

 as Mr. Housrnan points out, make the Red Polled breed suitable for 

 conditions of existence which would be very unfavourable to many of 

 the heavier breeds. 



ABERDEEN-ANGUS. The Polled Angus or Aberdeen is now the 

 prevailing breed of cattle in the wide triangular-shaped area of country 

 which lies to the north-east of a line drawn from Dundee to Nairn. 

 Each of the counties of Forfar and Aberdeen seems to have had from 

 time immemorial its polled cattle, the one being termed the Angus 

 Doddies and the other the Buchan or Aberdeen Hummlies, and from 

 both these races the present improved breed seems to have sprung. 

 One of the great improvers of the breed was Mr. Hugh Watson of 

 Keillor, Forfarshire, who has been termed the Colling of the Angus 

 breed. The approved colour of the Aberdeen-Angus is black, but 

 some animals are more or less marked with white. The white 

 markings, however, that occasionally crop out, and the red colour 

 which sometimes marks an animal of pure breeding, are instances 

 of atavism. If a red calf is dropped in any first-class herd it is 

 invariably sent to the butcher, and is never used for breeding purposes. 

 The head is fine, the carcass round and low, the legs are short and 

 the shoulders full. 



These cattle (figs. 13 and 14) attain to a large size, with heavy 

 weight. As compared with the Galloways, they are finer in the bone, 

 softer and silkier in the hair, and generally shorter in the legs. 



" The Aberdeen- Angus of the present day," remarks Professor 

 Wallace in his "Farm Live Stock," "occupies among Scotch cattle 

 very much the same position as the Devon does among English breeds 

 for equality of flesh, refinement of type, perfection of symmetry, and, 

 it might be added, for the excellent flavour of its marbled beef; yet it 



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