1921.] 



Aberdeen- Angus Cattle. 



691 



proof of the early maturing characteristics of the Doddies that 

 only one of McCombie's " best beef producing group " of six, 

 was over two years and a few months. 



^fcCombie's ideal in breeding cattle was size, symmetry, 

 fineness of bone, strength of constitution and adaptability to 

 accumulate flesh evenly. Few men in his generation had 

 greater all round experience than McCombie; he dealt largely 

 in commercial cattle, attended the Smithfield markets with 

 regular consignments, and there found that the demand for 

 the Doddy by the London butchers exceeded that for any 

 other breed, and brought more remunerative prices — a feature 

 that impressed the most famous of all present-day Shorthorn 

 breeders, Mr. William Duthie of Collynie, who has stated, 

 "It is some years since I was in the habit of attending the 

 London Christmas market, and in those days there was nothing 

 I liked to own, and nothing I liked to stand behind better than 

 a lot of good Aberdeen- Angus cattle." What an appreciation 

 from so great an authority ! In these days he is modelling the 

 Shorthorn with the Doddy characteristics as nearly as human 

 skill can command. 



McCombie's deeds proved an incentive to that able 

 veterinarian, Dr. Clement Stephenson, to carry forward the 

 black " banner with a strange device," the Doddy. He, in 

 1885, 1887 and 1894, carried away from the Smithfield Club 

 Show the Champion Plate and other trophies. Dr. Stephen- 

 son was a keen enthusiast and good judge and did sterling 

 work in promoting the interests of the breed: he will fill a big 

 place in its historical records. Not the least of his productions 

 was his 1885 Champion Heifer, " Luxury," which was a 

 model of symmetry and economical feeding; its carcass gave 

 the minimum of offal to the maximum of prime lean flesh ever 

 registered; the purchaser who slaughtered it testified that the 

 carcass, when quartered, appeared to have no coarse meat at 

 all; there was little more scrag than in a sheep and the small- 

 ness of the bone in proportion to the thickness and weight of 

 the carcass wa^ remarkable. The dead weight of this animal 

 was 1,318 lb. showing a percentage of 76f dressed meat to live 

 weight, only 23 J per cent, offal. This record will be hard to 

 beat, if it is ever beaten. 



The Earl of Strathmore next entered the lists and em- 

 l)lazoned on the black banner further Smithfield Club 

 Championship victories in 1896, 1898, 1901 and 1902. What 

 a marvellous quartette ,were those Aberdeen- Angus heifers, 

 " Minx," " Ju Ju," Layia," and Brunhilde of Glamis." 



B 2 



