POLLED CATTLE IN ALFOED. 43 



viz., that he (Mr K. Walker) had " received £50 each for 

 two bullocks reared upon his farm, and killed at seven 

 years old ; that he received £35 each for other two only 

 four years old ; and that he has frequently received £30 

 for young stots either sold to the cattle-dealer, or fed to 

 the butcher." It is not stated that these were polled cattle, 

 but it is proved beyond doubt that very early in the 

 present century Mr Walker did breed polled cattle at 

 Wester Fintray. It is stated in the ' Farmer's Magazine ' 

 for 1846 (vol. ii.), that Mr James Walker was then one of 

 " the most successful breeders of black cattle in the north 

 of Scotland, particularly the polled Aberdeenshire breed, 

 for which he has acquired much and well - merited 

 celebrity." 



It would appear that although it had its headquarters 

 in Buchan, the polled breed had even in the last century 

 been reared in other parts of the county. Mr William 

 Anderson, Wellhouse, Alford, in a communication dated 

 April 13, 1881, says : " My father and uncle farmed land 

 in the Vale of Alford in the end of the eighteenth century, 

 and bred polled cattle. Sometimes the bulls were black 

 and sometimes brindled, but they were always polled. 

 My father would not have bred from a horned bull, and 

 he always disliked horned cattle. He and my uncle took 

 prizes for black polled cattle at the shows of the Vale 

 of Alford Agricultural Society, formed soon after 1830." 

 Mr Anderson also states that there were other breeders of 

 polled cattle in the Alford district, such as Mr Eeid, 

 Greystone, father of the present tenant ; Mr Taylor, Well- 

 house, and others. Then through Mr James L. Douglass, 

 banker, Ballater, and others, we learn that polled cattle 

 had been bred very early in the present century in the 

 upper districts of Aberdeenshire. Mr Douglass says : 

 " As to the introduction of polled cattle into the Cromar 

 district, I cannot assign a particular date. The late Rev. 

 Mr Brown, minister of CouU, who died in the end of 



