32 EARLY HISTORY OF ABERDEEN OR ANGUS CATTLE. 



cades of the eighteenth century, there had been through- 

 out Angus a considerable proportion of polled cattle. This 

 idea is further supported by the following quotation from 

 the ' General View of the Agriculture of Angus,' published 

 in 1813 : " With regard to the permanent stock, they are 

 of various breeds, and differ very much from each other in 

 shape and quality. Little attention is paid to the selection 

 of the males or females by whom the breed is propagated ; 

 and no pains have been taken to elicit a breed distinguished 

 by any peculiar properties, either as a good milking or a 

 good fattening breed. A great proportion of the perma- 

 nent stock are humlies — that is, they have no horns ; and 

 in this particular they seem allied to the Galloway breed." 

 Youatt's account of the origin of the polled cattle of 

 Angus is strangely contradictory. In his well-known 

 woT'k on ' Cattle, their Breeds and Management,' published 

 about 1835, he says : " There have always been some polled 

 cattle in Angus ; the country-people call them humlies, or 

 dodded cattle. Their origin is so remote, that no account 

 of their introduction into this county can be obtained from 

 the oldest farmers or breeders. The attention of some 

 enterprising agriculturists appears to have first been di- 

 rected to them about sixty years ago [that would be about 

 1775], and particularly on the eastern coast and on the 

 borders of Kincardineshire." Having described the char- 

 acteristics of the breed, and noted in particular the opera- 

 tions of the late Mr Hugh Watson of Keillor, Youatt remarks 

 that the Angus cattle " are not quite equal to their ances- 

 tors, the Galloways, in quickness of feeding and fineness of 

 grain," and adds, that "in many places the Angus cattle 

 have gradually given way to the old occupiers of the land, 

 the Galloways." The inconsistency between these state- 

 ments is very striking, and detracts greatly from the 

 value of Youatt's evidence. In support of the suggestion 

 which has sometimes been made, by others as well as 

 Youatt, that the Galloways had been the ancestors of 



