136 EXTINCT HERDS. 



It is, Mr Carnegie says, impossible to trace the origin of 

 the Kinnaird stock, which has probably gone on from 

 generation to generation from a very remote period. At 

 the time of the minority of the late Sir James Car- 

 negie of Southesk, which lasted from 1805 till 1821, the 

 home farm of Kinnaird was farmed by his mother, Lady 

 Carnegie, and then all the cattle were polled Angus 

 indeed, probably there was no other breed in the dis- 

 trict. Lady Carnegie frequently spoke to the Honourable 

 Charles Carnegie about her cattle and their splendid 

 milking-qualities, also of her system of rearing calves. 

 This system consisted in feeding the calf with a mixture 

 of skimmed milk and boiled turnips her secret of get- 

 ting the calves to take to it kindly being to put some of 

 the boiled turnips into the very first milk that was given 

 to the calf, as, if the calf had ever tasted pure milk, it 

 would have been very difficult to induce it to drink the 

 mixture. 



As far as known to Mr Carnegie, no stock but polled 

 Angus was at Kinnaird until about 1834, when one or two 

 Ayrshire cows and an Ayrshire bull were got. The best 

 of the Angus cows were then sent to the bulls in the 

 neighbourhood, there being polled stock at that time at 

 every one of the adjacent farms. The use of the Ayrshire 

 bull was discontinued in 1840, though some of the Ayr- 

 shire cows continued to be kept till 1849 ; and Mr Car- 

 negie remembers some most excellent stock got by the 

 polled bull from these remaining Ayrshires. They were 

 generally black and polled, and some of them might easily 

 have been taken for pure Angus. 



At the time of Mr Carnegie's first personal recollec- 

 tion of the Kinnaird herd, there were about seven pure 

 Angus cows, besides the cows belonging to the servants, 

 all of which were polled. The prevailing colour of the 

 Kinnaird herd, as of all the cattle in the county, wr, 

 black; but there was hardly a herd which had not i 



