312 THE OX, 



VI. THE ANGUS BREED. 



The country from which this breed of cattle is derived is 

 the tract of Old Red Sandstone which forms the plains and 

 less elevated parts of the counties of Forfar and Kincardine. 

 This tract of country is of varying fertility, has long been 

 enclosed, and is now extensively applied to a mixed system 

 of tillage and grazing, and, in a peculiar degree, to the pro- 

 duction of turnips. The breed of cattle is to be regarded as 

 one of those races which are intermediate between the races 

 of the mountains and those of the richer plains. The older 

 breed of the district was horned, but with a tendency, it may 

 be believed, to assume the hornless character. But, however 

 this be, the hornless variety ultimately became the predomi- 

 nant one, and is now to be regarded as the cultivated breed 

 of the district. The animals are termed by the country 

 people dodded, and sometimes humbled, cattle. Attention 

 seems to have been especially devoted to them as a separate 

 variety soon after the American war, when the agriculture 

 of this part of Scotland began a course of rapid improvement. 

 During the war with France, the cultivation and improve- 

 ment of them continually extended, and numbers of them 

 were driven to the English markets under the name of Gal- 

 loways, which they resembled in their aspect and general 

 character. There has been ever since a large exportation of 

 them to Yorkshire, Norfolk, Leicester, and other grazing 

 counties, where they are fattened for a longer or shorter time 

 according to their condition. They find their way in num- 

 bers to Smithfield, and form a part of the consumption of 

 the capital. 



This breed has a certain resemblance to the Galloway, and 

 a mixture of blood seems to have taken place between them ; 

 but the cattle are less compact in form, and longer in their 

 limbs, than the true Galloways, and have not the depth of rib 

 so characteristic of the latter breed. But the Angus, living 



