FALKIRK TO EDINBURGH. 43 



out SO completely from the rest_, that, after being sent 

 along on cake and corn, it was sold for 76s. per cwt., 

 and left ^844 for eighteen months' keep. No sales 

 were more spoken of last year than this bullock^s, 

 and the dozen three-year-old shorthorn crosses of Mr. 

 Harris's, which were lifted at =£48 all round in Forres 

 Christmas market. 



Calves also come to Falkirk in large lots from 

 Craven and the dairy districts of Yorkshire and Lan- 

 cashire, and are purchased by feeders and graziers 

 north of the Forth, and principally from Forfar- 

 shire and Fife. Their horns are generally taken out 

 by the buyers, that they may take up less room, and 

 not be troublesome in the yards, and some of the 

 Dutch purchases have theirs extracted at a still riper 

 age. For cross-bred shorthorns, threes, twos, stirks, 

 and calves, £18 to J13, £15 to £11, £12 to £7, and 

 £6 to £4 are the general prices ; and the Irish-bred 

 ones range about £1 lower. Cast ewes come out in im- 

 mense strength at this October tryst, and as many as 

 80,000 ewes and wedders, fxve-eighths of them Che- 

 viots, will change hands, while blackfaced '^ High- 

 land or HilF' wedders will muster 800 to 1,000 in 

 a lot. 



The principal buyers at Falkirk are the Cumber- 

 land, Dumfries, and Wigtownshire men, many of 

 whom take large lots varying from 3,000 to 4,000, 

 and divide them with their brother farmers. In this way 

 some of the Cumberland ..men will have as their por- 

 tion 400 to 500 Cheviot wedders, and half as many 



