SOUTH AFRICA 175 



liorns of the ''Scotch" beef type have been used, and all these 

 bulls trace back directly or indirectly to the herd of Mr. W. 

 Duthie, of Collynie, and thence to the Cruickshank herd. 



"Females have from time to time been imported. The first 

 batch of Lincoln Red females do not appear to have done well. 

 They did not maintain themselves in good condition. Nineteen 

 pure-bred Coates Shorthorn cows have also been imported for 

 the purpose of breeding bulls for use on the ranch, and for sale. 

 Such home-bred pure-bred bulls find a ready market. The 

 imported cattle, after becoming acclimatised, do just as well on 

 the veld as the grade cattle reared on the estate. Age for age, 

 the females bred on the ranch are equal in size to the imported 

 animals. The bulls are smaller, however, as no attempt is made 

 to force their maturity. 



"Taking the original mixed herd, each generation shows some 

 improvement over the original, but now and then a throw-back 

 appears, and they will appear for a number of years. Con- 

 trary to expectation, the higher graded animals from the original 

 ■cows. Math strong Shorthorn foundation, of which there are now 

 four generations represented on the ranch, do not show any 

 tendency to lack of vigour and hardiness, being quite as robust, 

 if not more so, than the original cattle. This robustness of 

 -constitution, with the consequent ability to make the utmost 

 use of the veld, has been secured by a fairly strict selection of 

 iDreeding females and a very strict adherence to substance, 

 strength, and vigour of constitution in the sires used. 



"In addition, taking seasons into consideration, the succeed- 

 ing generations show progressively greater tendency to early 

 maturity, thus demonstrating that the finer bred cattle can make 

 as good or better use of the veld than their presumably more 

 "hardy forbears. The same also holds for the lower grades, from 

 the very mixed Jersey-Friesland and Africander foundations. 

 This finding encourages the owner of the ranch in his idea of 

 persisting with Coates Shorthorn bulls of the right stamp. The 

 paramount idea has been to produce an ox matured at three to 

 four years, and dressing up to 800 lbs., from the veld alone. 



"At present on the ranch there are some 2.500 head of cattle, 

 -which numbers are being gradually augmented. Of this 

 number, 1000 head are breeding cows and heifers. For this 

 number of females there are kept eighteen bulls. 



