Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding Horses, Cattle, and Sheep. 17 
Would it pay the farmer better to breed his own ? I am strongly of opinion 
that it would, and whenever opportunity occurs I endeavour to impress that 
opinion upon my neighbours. On the poorer land, which is generally in small 
farms, breeding and rearing cattle are carried on ; and considering the high price 
of butter and store stock, which this class of farmer has to dispose of, I should 
say that it is far more profitable than grazing. It is among this class of 
farmers of poor land that many half-bred horses are bred, perhaps in some 
measure for the reason that they can be raised at a cheap rate, whilst they 
will not pay for grazing on good land. I cannot think that there are fewer 
horses bred at the present day than formerly, but it is very possible that 
horse-breeding, which for many years was barely remunerative, owing to the 
low price fixed by Government for the supply required by them, has not 
increased in proportion to the demand, for I should think twenty men drive a 
horse now where one did formerly. As to sheep, many farmers of the best 
land do not like them among fattening stock on their feeding-land, so they 
prefer to buy-in their stocks of grazing-sheep as they may require them either 
for grass, clover, or roots. Others, again, on a worse class of land breed sheep 
and run them with their store stock. Undoubtedly, breeding has paid best of 
late years ; wool and mutton having been at such remunerative prices, whilst 
graziers have had to pay dearly for their lean stock, and run the risk of 
fluctuating markets. 
Thos. C. Booth^ 
6. TiLLYFouB, Aberdeen. 
In some cases British farmers could breed more cattle and sheep than at 
present ; but in other cases they could not do so with profit. An expensive 
stock of breeding cattle is invariably a great risk. Some men are very for- 
tunate with breeding-stock, and others are not, and the latter generally breed 
to a loss, or, at any rate, to no profit. If a farmer has the misfortune to rent 
land which is not healthy for a breeding or j oung stock, or if he cannot give 
pretty close personal attention to them, or does not know much about stock, 
he is safer to buy stores to consume the root and straw-crops than to breed for 
himself. 
I do not breed horses nor sheep, so I cannot give a very reliable comparison ; 
but in Aberdeenshire generally, cattle are the most profitable to graze and 
feed, especially on our best land. The poorer land ought to be grazed with 
either small Black-polled or West Highland cattle, or with sheep. I have not 
known of any farmer who formerly bred sheep extensively, now rearing cattle 
instead ; but some farmers of my acquaintance have, since the Rinderpest in 
1865-6, kept a mixed stock of sheep and cattle. I have done so myself, and> 
to a profit. I highly approve of such a stock where the farm is composed partly 
of good land, and partly of inferior. 
1 believe that for commercial purposes the polled Aberdeen and the cross- 
breds are the best, and are the only real rent-paying kinds of cattle in this county, 
and that Blackfaced sheep are best suited to our cold, wet climate. It is a 
mistaken notion that we cannot make our black cattle prime fat at two years 
old. I have six-quarter-olds just now quite fit for the butcher. > 
William McCombie. 
7. EicALL Hall, York. 
When the land is well managed, the arable soils thoroughly drained and 
highly cultivated ; when farmyard-manure is supplemented by artificials, and 
foreign food freely used ; and when the grass land is not treated as though it 
VOL. XII.— S. S. * 0 
