702 TRANSACTIONS OF SUB-SECTION K. 
and the yield of the individual cows. The members could not manage 
these, and when in the beginning of the ’nineties information of the 
percentage of fat in the milk was included in the requirements it was 
found necessary to take this whole matter up in a different way. This led 
to the formation of the Control Union of Cow Testing Associations, which 
undertakes to strike a balance sheet for each individual cow that shall 
determine the daily feeding, the weeding out of unprofitable cows, and the 
selection of cows for breeding. Farmers in a district appoint jointly a 
‘controlling assistant,’ who once every fourteen or twenty days visits each 
herd, weighs the milk of each cow, estimates the percentage of fat, weighs 
the food given daily to each cow, and keeps account of it all. He further 
keeps a book of the serving and calving, with all information necessary for 
the family herd book. The first Control Union was formed in 1895; now 
there are 479 with 10,925 members and 187,345 cows, comprising over 
17 per cent. of the total number of cows in the kingdom. The work is 
carried on by 500 controlling assistants, the State giving a grant of 141. per 
union yearly. 
The information with regard to the yield and quality of milk of the 
individual cows collected by the Control Unions is taken into account in 
awarding the prizes at the shows, and is also made use of in selecting the 
cows to be served by the bulls of the Cattle Breeders’ Associations. 
3. The Evolution of a Breed of Cattle. By Professor J. Wison, B.Sc. 
Nearly every breed of cattle is a combination of several breeds: a result of 
crossing again and again and of subsequent ‘pure’ breeding. The modern 
Aberdeen-Angus breed is a case in point. It is the result of perhaps fewer 
crossings than some other breeds ; but the ingredients used in its production 
are so decidedly varied, that a consideration of the way in which it has been 
formed yields the most highly instructive results. 
In addition to the Urus, which became extinct in the Bronze Age, half a 
dozen different kinds of cattle have come to Britain at different times—viz. 
(a) the black Celtic race, which came in before the Urus was extinct ; (b) 
the ‘brown’ race, black with a brown stripe along the back and a tan 
muzzle, which probably came with the Belgze; (c) the white race, brought 
in by the Romans; (d) the red race, brought in by the Anglo-Saxons ; (€) 
the hornless race, brought in by the Norsemen; and (f) the large flecked 
race imported from Holland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
When the Norsemen brought over their hornless cattle the rest of Scotland 
was occupied by the black Celtic race, with a considerable infusion of brown 
Belge and a smaller infusion of white Romans. These were all horned. 
In the eighteenth century many large cattle of the Dutch-flecked race were 
taken to the North-East of Scotland and crossed with the small native cattle, 
with the result that the native cattle gradually acquired the size of the 
flecked cattle. All this time the Norse cattle had been holding the sea- 
boards of Forfar, Kincardine, Aberdeen, and Banffshires. In the middle of 
the eighteenth century a demand arose in England for hornless cattle ; and 
to meet this demand the farmers in the North-East of Scotland crossed their 
horned cattle with the Norse hornless ones, with the result that the horns of 
the horned ones were removed. By selecting breeding stock that were black 
in colour, large in size, and hornless, the North-East farmers eliminated the 
undesirable characters of the various races of cattle that had been introduced 
to their country, and eventually produced their present breed. 
