260 EXISTING SCOTCH HERDS. 



of course, Shah had all the early concentrated Panmure 

 and Ardovie blood, it will be found by working out his 

 pedigree to its terminations, that there occur in it the 

 names of Mr Watson's bulls, Grey-breasted Jock 2, Old 

 Jock 1, Angus 45, Pat 29, Strathmore 5, Adam 39, and 

 Maynooth 58. Prince of the Eealm 1695, again, was a son 

 of Shah 680. The other sire used by Mr Ferguson last 

 season, Baron Wharncliffe, continues the slightly diluted 

 blood by his sire Prince of the Eealm, while on the dam's 

 side his pedigree presents a remarkable concentration of 

 the Keillor strains. The close affinities on which the herd 

 has been raised is shown in another way. Since 1839, 

 Mr Ferguson has used, leaving aside the bulls Young 

 Palmerston and Lord Macduff, thirteen sires. Of these, 

 nine were descended from Old Grannie 1, one from 

 Favourite 2, one from Mr Watson's Beauty, while one each 

 have belonged to the Balwyllo Isabella and the Pride 

 tribes. It will be seen that practically the only decided 

 outcrosses resorted to by Mr Ferguson during his career as 

 a breeder, extending over forty years, have been those 

 introduced by President 3rd and Shah, and the dilution 

 must have been necessary, in the circumstances under 

 which the herd was kept, to prevent sterility and unhealthi- 

 ness. 



Mr Ferguson has held no public sales, but he has dis- 

 posed of polled cattle privately for the last forty-five years, 

 and of course a full account of transactions extending 



o 



over that long period would be impossible. A note of the 

 chief sales may, however, be given. Mr Ferguson has bred 

 about 400 bulls. The great majority of these were never 

 registered, but went to ordinary rent-paying stocks through- 

 put the country. About the year 1850, fifteen heifers were 

 sold in one lot to a gentleman who had formerly kept the 

 inn at Castletown of Braemar, and was then a grazier in 

 the north of Scotland. About the same time twelve or 

 fourteen heifers were sold to Mr James Leslie, The Thorn, 



