116 EXTINCT HEEDS. 



It is a mistake to say the mark of the blistering was then 

 on his side. He did not take pleuro when my beasts died. 

 I suppose I saved him by keeping him in an end of the 

 straw-barn." 



The last observation as to Earl o' Buchan recalls the 

 disastrous fate of Mr Fullerton's fine herd, which is one 

 of the most melancholy incidents in the records of the 

 breed. Here is Mr FuUerton's own pathetic statement : 

 " My herd was swept off by pleuro in 1859, when in five 

 months I buried 100 head of, I believe, the best herd 

 of polled cattle in Scotland at the time. I reckoned 

 my loss was not under £2000 ; but had this [1876] been 

 the date of my loss, the figure would have to be raised a 

 little. How my beasts caught the disease, I could never 

 say. I had more polled cattle than my farm would keep, 

 and I had animals on several other farms, both on grass 

 and turnips, which had, I suppose, brought home the fell 

 disease. I had again got a considerable length to recoup 

 my old position, but three times my herd — of nearly thirty 

 at one time, and twenty head or thereby at other two times — 

 was carried away." But for the sales made by Mr Fuller- 

 ton in 1843 and 1844, it is possible that his choice cattle 

 would now be without representatives. Thanks, however, 

 chiefly to Mr M'Combie of Tillyfour, no families of polled 

 stock are more numerous or more valued than the de- 

 scendants of those cultivated forty years ago by Mr Fuller- 

 ton at Ardovie and Ardestie. 



Tillyfour. 



In other portions of the work, we refer to the position 

 and proceedings of Mr M'Combie of Tillyfour, as a breeder 

 of polled cattle. Here we shall endeavour to furnish a 

 sketch of the material of which his herd was composed, 

 his system of breeding, and notes on some of the more 

 remarkable animals reared at Tillyfour. The Tillyfour 



