i68 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



very common in Lincolnshire at the end of the seventeenth 

 century. They gave more milk than the black sort but went 

 dry sooner. They were also found in Suffolk and Surrey. 



The red cattle were the largest in England, their milk rich 

 and nourishing, so much so that it was given specially to 

 consumptives. They were first bred in Somerset, where in 

 Bradley's time particular attention was paid to their breeding, 

 and were evidently the ancestors of the modern Devons. 

 About London these cows were often fed on turnips, given 

 them tops and all, which made their milk bitter. They were 

 also found in Lincolnshire and some other counties, where 

 ' they were fed on the marshes ', and Defoe saw, in the Weald 

 of Kent, ' large Kentish bullocks, generally all red with their 

 horns crooked inward.' Bradley gives the following balance 

 sheet for a dairy of nine cows ^ : 



Dr. £ s. d. 



6 months' grass keep at \s, 6d. per week per head 17 1 1 o 

 6 months' winter keep (straw, hay, turnips, and 



grains) at 2s. per week per head . . . 23 8 o 



^40 19 o 



Cr. ~~ 



13,140 gallons of milk . . . . . . 136 17 6 



40 19 o 



Balance (profit) ^95 18 6 



A correspondent, however, pointed out to Bradley that this 

 yield and profit was far above the average, which was about 

 £^ a cow, on whom Bradley retorted that it could be made, 

 though it was exceptional. 



In the eighteenth century the great trade of driving Scottish 

 cattle to London began, Walter Scott's grandfather being the 

 pioneer. The route followed diverged from the Great North 

 Road in Yorkshire in order to avoid turnpikes, and the cattle, 

 grazing leisurely on the strips of grass by the road-side, 

 generally arrived at Smithfield in good condition."- 



* Bradley, General Treatise, i. 76. ^ Slater, English Peasantry, p. 52. 



