EARLY MATURITY OF THE BREED. 85 



animal of any other variety ; and that the longer he stood 

 "week after week behind cattle in the markets," his 

 estimate of black polled cattle as beef-producers became 

 greater and greater. At local fairs and sales of farm- 

 stock throughout the north-east of Scotland, lean black 

 polled one and two year old cattle generally bring from 

 f 1 to 2 per head more than a corresponding class of roan 

 horned crosses. An Aberdeen butcher of long and exten- 

 sive experience states, that he considers it safe to give 

 about 5s. more per cwt. for a well-fed polled animal than 

 for a similarly finished horned cross. 



Among some not directly acquainted with the improved 

 Aberdeen or Angus cattle, an idea has prevailed that the 

 breed is slow in coming to maturity that it grows slowly 

 and fattens slowly. Formerly that may have been the 

 case ; indeed there is no doubt that it was. Now, how- 

 ever, the breed has been so greatly improved in that respect 

 that it matures almost as early as any of the other leading 

 breeds. When well fed from their birth, good specimens 

 of the breed become ripe at the age of from twenty -four to 

 twenty -eight months ; and it is also worthy of note that 

 animals of the breed that are being fattened will retain the 

 levelness and quality of their flesh longer than those of 

 most other kinds. At the Smithfield Club Show in Lon- 

 don in 1879, the highest increase in weight per day from 

 birth was shown by a two-year-and-nine-months-old steer 

 of the polled Aberdeen or Angus breed, shown by Sir 

 William Gordon Gordon Gumming, Bart, of Altyre, and 

 bred by Mr Grant, Advie. At the Smithfield Club Show in 

 London in 1880, the average daily increase in weight of the 

 six steers of the polled Aberdeen and Angus breed under 

 three years old was 1.78 lb., and that of the corresponding 

 class of Shorthorn steers, 1.79 lb. In 1881 Sir W. G. G. 

 Gumming won the Smithfield Champion Cup, and the cups 

 for the best steer or ox and best heifer or cow, with two 

 polled animals, each under three years old. 



