THE WEST HIGHLANDERS. 



haps, docility of temper ; and that will be acquired when improve* 

 ments in agriculture have rendered it unnecessary for the beast to 

 wander so tar over so wild a country, in search of food, and when he 

 will be earlier and more perfectly domesticated. The Highlander, 

 however, must be reared for the grazier alone. Every attention to 

 increa.se his weijj^ht, in order to make him capable of agricultural 

 hibor — every effort to qualify him for the dairv, will not only lessen 

 his hardiness of constitution and propensity to fatten, but will fail in 

 rendering him valuable for the purpose at which the farmer foolishly 

 aims. The character of the Highlander must still be, that he will 

 pay better for his quantity of food than any other breed, and will 

 fatten where any other breed would only live. This is the secret of 

 profitably breeding or grazing the Highland cattle. 



THE WEST HIGHLAND FAT OX. 



The management both of the cow and her calf depend much on 

 the object which the breeder principally pursues. If he studies the 

 character of his stock, he makes little butter and cheese, and generally 

 rears a calf for every cow, giving it the greater part of her milk. A 

 likely bull-calf is sometimes allowed the milk of two cows for a con- 

 siderable time, and often for six months. When the calves are 

 weaned, they are fed on the hills during the summer, and brought'on 

 the lower grounds in winter; and, if the pasture is not good, they 

 are occasionally fed with straw and hay. It is after the first winter 

 that the absurd and cruel system of overstocking and starvation com- 



