154 Scientific Proceedings, Roi/al Dublin Society. 



short, glossy coat of hair ; some were good milkers, but some went to flesh 

 and fat instead of milk. A few were of a dull red colour, but they were not 

 so higli in favour as the brindled cattle. The polled cattle were the dairy 

 stock. The butter they produced was fine in summer and autumn, but 

 hard and white in winter. The establishing of a beef trade with England, 

 and the introduction of Shorthorn bulls and turnip husbandry, opened up a 

 new era for Buchan. The native cattle fattened well, and money was 

 made by doing so. Shorthorn bulls were introduced and put to all kinds 

 of cows. Often when a Shorthorn bull was mated with a small polled cow, 

 the produce was a black poll of the finest character — immensely superior to 

 either of the parents. When a heifer of this stamp was again put to a 

 good Shorthorn bull, the result was quite as fine a black poll, of still larger 

 size. If the produce were also a heifer, and mated with a pure Shortlioru 

 bull, the produce was still a poll, yet larger in size, but bluish-grey in 

 colour. If a heifer again, and put to a Shorthorn bull, the produce was 

 once more a grey poll, probably lighter in colour. When this form of 

 crossing was continued further. Shorthorn colours appeared, sometimes with 

 scurs, but ofteuer with the regular short horns of the male parent. I 

 observed this expei-iment tried in several cases, with exactly the same 

 result. With the larger polls with white underlines, the horns and colour 

 of the shorthorn bull were earlier transmitted to the produce, generally at 

 the second or third crosses. I therefore look upon the small polls without 

 white spots as the pure original Buchan Humlie." 



The points of immediate importance in Mr. Forbes's statement are that 

 the original East Aberdeenshire hornless cattle were small, puny, thin-fleshed 

 dairy cattle, whose milk, so far as the fat was concerned, was apparently 

 similar in character to that of the modern Jersej'. These cattle were crossed 

 by larger cattle from the south, and eventually lost nearly every character 

 tiiey possessed excepting their hornlessness ; or, it might be put the other 

 way : that the intruding cattle retained tlie characters they brought with 

 them excepting their iiorns, which they lost by crossing with the Buchan 

 Humlies. 



Sutherlanckldre. — It is onlj^ from almost a chance remark of Pennant's 

 that we know of the existence of hornless cattle in the northern counties. 

 He states' that " Sutherland is a county abounding in cattle, and sends out 

 aunuallj'- about 2500 head, which sold about this time (lean) from 21. 10s. 

 to 3/. per head. These are very frequently without horns, and both they and 

 the horses are very small." 



Yet the probability is that there were hornless cattle round the northern 



1 " Tour in Scotland," 3rd edition, 1774, p. 170. 



