TREATMENT OP BREEDING COWS. 235 



eminent breeder of the same kind of stock in this county, informs 

 me, that he extends this rule to the steadings in wliich his cattle 

 are kept. 



"To illustrate generally the grounds of this belief and prac- 

 tice, the following cases may be cited : 



"A black polled Angus cow, belonging to Mr. Mustard, u. 

 farmer in Forfarshire, came into season while pasturing in a field 

 bounded %- that of a neigjiboring farmer. Out of this field 

 there jumped into the other field an ox, of a white color, with 

 black spots, and horned, which went with the cow till she was 

 brought to the bull — an animal of the same color and breed as 

 herself Mr. Mustard had not a horned animal in his possession, 

 nor any with the least white on it; and yet the produce of this 

 (black and polled) cow and bull was a black and white calf, with 

 horns. 



"In 1849, twenty cows of the black polled Angus breed 



belonging to Mr. William M'Combie, in this county, and whose 

 stock is perhaps the finest in the kingdom — produced as many 

 calves, all of them black and polled, except one single calf, which 

 was yellow and white spotted. Mr. M'Combie had, as usiial 

 with him, taken the precaution of causing the cows, both before 

 and during their pregnancy, to mix with none save perfectly 

 black cattle, except in respect of the mother of this calf, which 

 cow had unwittingly been put to an out-farm, to be starved, in 

 order to fit her for the bull. There, for a considerable period 

 prior to her being served with the bull, she had grazed with a 

 large yellow and white spotted ox, of which ox the calf she sub- 

 sequently bore was the very picture — the likeness, however, 

 extending no farther than to the color, and the calf still retain- 

 ing the shape and configuration of its parents, which were both 

 of the same breed and color. 



"Out of a large herd of cows, of the pure Teeswater breed, 

 all of them of the brown or roan color, (belonging to Mr. Cruick- 



