108 



Agriculture of Scotland. 



butcher^, are maintained from their earliest time on full feed, it 

 being a great object to prevent them losing any of the condition 

 they generally possess when taken from the ewes. With this view, 

 also, they are early put upon turnips, as it is very desirable they 

 should be well acquainted with this their essential means of sup- 

 port, previous to any failure in the nutritious properties of the 

 grass, or the occurrence of severe weather. When either of these 

 events takes place, the turnip forms the chief or only source of 

 their subsistence. 



To the young stock intended to be kept for breeding fewer 

 turnips are commonly allowed, although they are seldom, during 

 any part of the winter, entirely deprived of this useful assistance. 

 The ewes, ha\ing at this season the range of the whole pastures, 

 are only allowed auxiliary food during the severity of a storm 

 and in hard winter weather, until towards the approach of the 

 period of lambing, when a proportion of turnips becomes indis- 

 pensable to maintain them in sufficient condition to bring them 

 w^ell through this critical and interesting season. In general more 

 sheep are fattened than are bred in the district. 



The cattle stock of the district may be said properly to consist 

 of the short-horned, or Teeswater breed ; at least, great pains are 

 taken to obtain that admired breed in as pure and improved a 

 state as it can possibly be produced ; and it must be admitted 

 that, in not a few hands within the bounds included in this review, 

 are to be found some of the finest specimens of short-horns of 

 which Scotland can boast. The liberality and exertions of the 

 Border Union Agricultural Society, whose annual exhibitions are 

 held alternately at Kelso and Coldstream, have undoubtedly con- 

 tributed largely to effect this end by cherishing and exciting a 

 spirit of praiseworthy rivalry in this important branch of rural 

 economy, which has been productive of universal benefit. The pre- 

 miums paid by that Society, for bulls and Leicester sheep, annually, 

 amount to upwards of 1 501. ; and by this liberality the Society has 

 succeeded in bringing forward a display of these animals which, 

 it is confidently presumed, is not equalled at any similar exhibition 

 in this part of the island. 



Although not entirely a breeding district for cattle, a consi- 

 derable number are reared within its bounds, it being pretty ge- 

 nerally the custom that a few calves are raised, perhaps, upon an 

 average, about two to the hundred acres. These are grazed and 

 retained upon the farm until fed off, commonly at three years' old, 

 although, by forcing, or being kept on the best food from their 

 earliest age, they are not unfrequently prepared for the butcher at 

 the conclusion of their second year ; and it is not uncommon to 

 see animals of this age produced at the Kelso spring market of 

 sixty stones' weight. Besides, additional cattle are bought in lean 



