42 EARLY HISTORY OF ABERDEEN OR ANGUS CATTLE. 



days. There were no Shorthorns in the district at that 

 time. For the purpose of improving their stock, my 

 father and the late Mr Hay, Shethin, then in the farm of 

 Craigies, went to Galloway about 1823 [probably two or 

 three years earlier] and bought the pick of that district. 

 I do not remember the number they bought, but I think 

 they would have had between 30 and 40. They were 

 not kept long, as they did not retain condition with the 

 same treatment as his own stock, and they were sold at 

 a public sale along with some of his own breeding. I 

 think Mr Hay did not keep his half of them long either." 



Mr William Stronach, Ardmeallie, Huntly, who was an 

 extensive breeder of cattle early in the century, states 

 that in 1835 he purchased a Shorthorn bull to cross with 

 his stock of cows, which " consisted generally of Buchan 

 humel, the Aberdeen horned, or a mixture of these 

 breeds." 



We have already seen that Mr George Williamson, St 

 John's Wells, Fyvie, had been an ardent admirer of the 

 " native low country breed." We have expressed our 

 opinion that these famous native cattle were not only 

 the progenitors of the modern Buchan humlies, but 

 were themselves also polled. At any rate, there is un- 

 doubted testimony that Mr Williamson was a breeder of 

 polled cattle. The late Mr M'Combie of Tillyfour stated 

 that he obtained some of his earlier polled animals from 

 St John's Wells. In his first catalogue, issued in 1850, 

 an entry reads as follows : " Matilda, an Aberdeen cow, 

 bred by the late Mr Williamson, St John's WeUs." 



Another of the foremost agriculturists of his day, the 

 late Mr Eobert Walker, Wester Fintray, was also a breeder 

 of polled cattle ; and his herd would seem to have been 

 continued by his son James, who succeeded him. Dr Skene 

 Keith, writing in 1810, refers to Mr Eobert Walker as an 

 advanced farmer, and quotes the following as showing the 

 success he had attained as a breeder and feeder of cattle — 



