380 SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT. 



with plenty of shelter. When within two weeks of 

 calving, they are put in stall and kept there with the 

 calf until the weather is mild enough for them to be 

 again turned into the court. In summer they are day 

 and night in the grass field. Show cattle are treated the 

 same as the others, with the addition of a little cake 

 before being exhibited. Mr Smith mentions an experi- 

 ment in feeding. At one of Mr Hannay's sales he 

 bought a very small heifer calf at 10, 10s. When she 

 got to be nearly two years old, he did not think she 

 would make a good cow ; so, to see what she would do as 

 a feeding animal, he bought a two-year-old Shorthorn 

 heifer, and a very good one she was, being better when 

 bought than the polled. They were kept together under 

 the same treatment until the Christmas following, when 

 they were showed at the fat show at Dundee. They 

 gained the first prize, although under three years old, 

 against all of any age. When killed, the poll-ed heifer 

 weighed 6 6 stones 6 Ibs. Imperial, and the Shorthorn 6 

 stones. He always thought the Shorthorn consumed 

 more food than the polled. Mr Smith thinks polled 

 cattle should all be fat, and sold when three years old. 

 If sooner, so much the better. He believes they can 

 easily be made fat at that age with grass and turnips, 

 and a little extra feeding the last three or four months. 



Mr William Anderson, Wellhouse, Alford, gives his 

 experience as follows : " I have been a breeder and a 

 feeder of polled cattle from a conviction that they are 

 the best beef-producing breed in existence. The polled 

 animal produces beef of the best quality, and has the 

 best cover of meat more than crosses or any other breed 

 on the most valuable parts of the animal. You will 

 get cross animals to stand higher on their legs, and bulk 

 more largely to the eye than the polls ; but compare them 

 closely, and especially the rump, loins, and along the 

 well-padded back of the latter, and you will soon find out 



