LIVE STOCK 375 



roll. Covered courts were almost universal instead of 

 the byres that are usual further south, and generally 

 there were several small courts instead of the large 

 yard one meets with in England. 



Most of the Morayshire farmers fatten cattle in the 

 winter on their turnips and oat straw, which in the 

 north is highly nutritive and entirely takes the place 

 of hay. They do not breed, but depend upon bought 

 stores, mainly Irish Shorthorns. It is true there are 

 in the district a number of famous Shorthorn herds, 

 and the hill country again is almost the native home 

 of the black polled Aberdeen Angus ; still the sup- 

 ply of stores from the smaller farmers, who do not 

 attempt pedigree stock and have no land good enough 

 for fattening, is quite insufficient for the local demand. 

 Generally the stock begin their feeding upon mashlum, 

 the mixture of oats, beans, peas, and sometimes vetches, 

 of which a few acres are grown on each farm to provide 

 fodder for the weeks that intervene between the grass 

 and the turnips. Draff from the distilleries is largely 

 bought for feeding. Dairying is extending in the 

 district, not only on the crofts, but on some of the 

 larger holdings ; one farm, for example, which we 

 visited, had 40 cows in milk, the milk being all sent 

 away by rail. So many losses had been experienced 

 on this farm from contagious abortion, despite various 

 forms of antiseptic treatment, that the occupier had 

 given up all attempts to breed and depended upon 

 buying newly-calved cows, which were fattened out as 

 they dried off. Sheep are not of much account in the 

 farming ; there are few breeding flocks in the low 

 country, where cross-breds are chiefly brought in to 

 fatten on the grass and the turnips. Some of the 

 farmers breed heavy horses we saw some very fine 

 Clydesdales on one farm and again deplored the 



