THE POLLED ABERDEENSHIRE BREED. 315 



lation to a breed, it must be understood as denoting the qua- 

 lity of reaching to the greatest weight of muscle, and degree 

 of fatness, in the shortest time, and with the least consump- 

 tion of food, and not the adaptation of the race to peculiar 

 localities, or the profit that may be derived between the 

 periods of buying and selling. These considerations kept in 

 mind, may prevent some of those disputes which sometimes 

 arise between persons contending for the relative superiority 

 of their respective breeds of animals. 



Sometimes the Angus breed has been crossed with the 

 Short-horned, and in this way very fine animals, superior to 

 the native race, have been produced : but the benefit ends in 

 a great degree with the first cross ; and the subsequent pro- 

 geny is inferior to the pure Short-horns in size and tendency 

 to fatten, and to the indigenous stock in hardiness and adapta- 

 tion to rough treatment. The safer course, therefore, to pur- 

 sue, is to preserve the two breeds distinct and pure. Where 

 the condition of farms, or the wishes of breeders, induce the 

 adoption of the Short-horned breed, this ought to be cul- 

 tivated in its state of purity ; where other circumstances 

 exist, the native breed should be preserved unmixed, care 

 being used to call forth its useful properties by proper feed- 

 ing, and due attention to the selection of the breeding parents. 



VII. THE POLLED ABERDEEN SHIKE BREED. 



The county of Aberdeen, covering nearly a sixteenth part 

 of the entire surface of North Britain, produces numerous 

 cattle which have long been a staple production of the dis- 

 trict, for the consumption of the towns, and for exportation 

 to the markets of the south. This extensive county consists 

 essentially of gneiss and granite, but presents great diversity 

 of surface, from the lofty mountains of the south-west and 

 west, some of whose summits rise nearly to the region of 

 perpetual congelation, to the sheltered valleys of the rivers, 



