92 
Relative Pi'ojits to the Farmer from 
observations of Mr. Macdonald, Clunj Castle, on this point. He 
says that instead of sending so many of the animals " from 
market to market in a lean state, running the risk of disease, 
exposure to cold, and, from these causes added to want of proper 
food, weakening their constitutions, and in too many cases 
carrying infection along with them, it would be more advan- 
tageous if an attempt were made, where the circumstances per- 
mitted, to combine the breeding, rearing, and feeding of cattle 
by the same person, who would then have an interest in selecting 
good animals to breed from, and in having the animals con- 
tinually well treated and fed properly till they were fit for the 
butcher." 
Mr. Riddell, Hundalee, one of the few farmers in Roxburgh- 
shire who breed cattle extensively, advocates more breeding even 
on what are regarded as feeding farms, and for the following 
reasons : — " 1st. Because there is every inducement to keep the 
calves in an improving state from the period of their birth 
onwards. 2nd. It greatly lessens the danger of catching disease, 
and gives the occupier of land a regular and interesting employ- 
ment during a greater part of the year." Mr. Ferguson, Kin- 
nochtry, considers a regular breeding stock, whether of horses, 
cattle, or sheep, the surest system of farming in Strathmore, 
though a great many farmers in that part of the country — 
Perthshire and Forfarshire — have within the last ten or twelve 
years given up breeding, and have taken to the feeding of bought- 
in cattle, largely English and Irish. One result is that foot- 
and-mouth disease is more common in those districts than it 
would probably be were the farmers less dependent on droved 
cattle. Mr. Copland Mill, of Ardlethen, Aberdeenshire, truly 
observes that " by housing the calves early in the autumn you 
never allow the calf-beef to go off, and thus have them ready for 
the market when they are from twenty to twenty-seven months old. 
I have adopted this system for the past twelve years, and for the 
last three have realised from 30/. to 35?. per head." Mi\ Currie, 
Halkerston, thinks there are too few cattle bred, and says, "on 
farms where the five-course rotation is the rule, cattle pay to breed 
and feed." " When there are two-fifths to one-half or more of the 
farm under grass," says Mr. Leslie, Corskellie, " breeding all the 
stock you can fatten is the most profitable, owing to the high 
price that has now to be paid for good young stock, as well as 
the difficulty in getting them." This view is supported by the 
testimony of Mr. George Street, Maulden, Bedford, who says, 
" on ordinary arable farms, with a fair proportion of grass, 1 
think it better to breed all kinds of stock required for the farm." 
There is a consideral)lo number of farms, particularly on 
clay soils, which are unhealtliy for a young or breeding stock. 
