MR WATSON'S SHOW -YARD SUCCESS. 53 



evening when the cows come into the byre for the night 

 and get a little cut grass, tares, or other green food. The 

 byre is arranged so that the cows have each a stall of 

 about 4 feet wide, with their heads to the wall ; and on 

 the opposite wall the calves are tied up, two in a stall, 

 exactly behind the cow, so that there is little trouble in 

 putting them to the cows, and no chance of misplacing 

 them. The fat calves have in some seasons been sold at 

 £5 each, this being the scarcest time of the year for veal." 

 Mr ^\'■atson gave much attention to the preparing of 

 cattle for the show-yard, and early in his career he in this 

 respect achieved great success. His son, Mr "William 

 Watson, says : " The list of awards to my father during 

 his lifetime for various descriptions of stock — in England, 

 Ireland, Scotland, and Trance — amounted to upwards of 

 five hundred." The first occasion on which he exhibited 

 polled cattle under the auspices of the Highland and 

 Agricultural Society of Scotland was at Perth in 1829. 

 His first prize pair of polled oxen at that show attracted 

 much attention by their size, symmetry, and quality. 

 One of these was a great beauty, and a choice butcher's 

 animal. He was exhibited at the Smithfield Show in 

 London the same year, and there too he was greatly ad- 

 mired. When slaughtered by a leading metropolitan 

 butcher (Mr Sparks, of High Street, Marylebone), his 

 carcass was found to be of very rare quality, the meat 

 being fine in the grain and well mixed ; while his fat 

 weighed no less than 240 lb. — about 84 lb. more than 

 the fat of the famous "Durham Ox." Another remark- 

 able animal shown at Perth in 1829 by Mr Hugh Watson 

 was a heifer, which, like the oxen, was bred by himself, 

 and which, at the request of the Highland Society, was 

 exhibited at the London Smithfield Show as a sample of 

 the excellence to which the Scotch polled breed might be 

 brought. There she was the admired of all admirers. 

 She was then 4| years old, and her dead weight was esti- 



