GALLOWAY CATTLE 403 



Scottish farmers coming south have often introduced 

 them, but only for a time. Sometimes the type is said 

 to deteriorate under the warmer and drier conditions ; 

 what has been perhaps more the determining factor is 

 the very low value attached in English markets to the 

 Ayrshire cow that has been fattened off. In Canada and 

 North America, however, the breed is in great favour. 



The black-polled Galloway belongs to the country 

 a little farther south along the shores of the Solway. 

 Galloway is, in fact, the old name of Wigtown, " The 

 Shire," and Kirkcudbright, " The Stewartry." Among 

 the hills of that rugged country and^across the Border 

 into Cumberland this very marked race of polled beef 

 cattle has long existed. Its origin is unknown, but 

 the type has not changed greatly since any records tell 

 of the local cattle, except that the dun and brindled 

 colours have given place to an entire black. Even in 

 the seventeenth century the district was noted for its 

 cattle, which travelled on foot to Norfolk and Suffolk 

 to be fattened out ; indeed, the Norfolk red-polls are 

 said to derive their hornless character from crossing 

 with the " Carrick " cattle, as the Galloways were often 

 called. The trade flourished all through the eighteenth 

 century, but nowadays the Norfolk grazier fills his 

 yards almost entirely with Irish beasts. Though not 

 of its former importance, the Galloway is one of the 

 most marked of our pure breeds, distinguished especi- 

 ally by its hardiness, for the young stock have always 

 been wintered out, even far up on the hills. Like 

 other very pure races, it stamps itself very markedly 

 upon the offspring from a cross, and the bullocks 

 arising from one Galloway cross possess a special 

 reputation for their rapid growth and superb value as 

 beef the famous "blue-greys," which most properly 

 are the produce of a white Shorthorn bull upon a 



