Report on some features of Scottish Agriculture. 207 
3. Sheep. — From 400 to 800 three-shear black-faced wedders 
from Deeside are bought at Braemar or on the hills, about the begin- 
respect. The grass comes very rapidly about the lOth June, and if you are not 
a very good judge of what you are about, it will get away in a few days, become 
too rank, and will lose its feeding qualities during the remainder of the season. 
By the middle of July, it will be nothing but withered herbage. Young grass 
ought to be well eaten down, and then relieved for two or three weeks ; then 
return the cattle, and the grass will be as sweet as before. It requires practice to 
know the number of cattle, and the proper time to put on these cattle, to secure 
the full benefits of new grass. Three days' miscalculation may cause a heavy 
loss. 1 have been bit so often, and found the difficulty so great, that I fear 
to extend my observations on this part of the subject, when I am addressing 
gentlemen, many of whom make their young grass into hay, or sell the grass 
to the cowfeeders. The pasturing t)f new grass, in which the farmers of Aberdeen- 
shire and the north of Scotland have a deep interest, may not apply to many 
other parts of Scotland. I come now to the way cattle should be treated after 
being taken from their pastures and put on turnips. The earlier you put 
them up, the sooner will they be ready for the butcher. The practice of tying 
the cattle early up in Aberdeenshire is now almost universal ; the success 
of the feeder depends upon it, for a few weeks may make a difference of several 
pounds. 
" I sow annually from twelve to sixteen acres of tares, and about the middle 
of June save a portion of the new grass full of red clover, and from the 1st 
to the 20th of August both tares and clover are fit for the cattle. I have for 
many years fed from 300 to 400 cattle ; and if I was not to take them up in time, 
I could pay no rent at all. A week's house-feeding in August, September, and 
October, is as good as three weeks in the dead of winter. I begin to put the 
cattle into the yards from the 1st to the middle of August, drafting first the 
largest cattle intended for the great Christmas market. This drafting gives 
a great relief to the grass parks, and leaves abundance to the cattle in the fields. 
During the months of August, September, and October, cattle do best in the 
yards, the byres being too hot ; but when the cold weather sets in there is no way, 
where many cattle are kept, in which they will do so well as at the stall. You 
cannot get loose boxes for 80 or 100 cattle on one farm. I generally buy my 
store cattle in Morayshire. They have all been kept in the straw-yard, never 
being tied. When the cattle are tied up on my farms, a rope is thrown over the 
neck of the bullock, the other end of the rope is taken round the stake ; two men 
are put upon it, and overhaul the bullock to his place. When tightened up to the 
stall the chain is attached to the neck, and the beast is fast. We can tie up 
50 beasts in five hours in this way. When tied, you must keep a man witli 
a switch to keep up the bullocks. If you did not do this, you would soon have 
every one of them loose again. They require to be carefully watched the first 
night, and in three days they get quite accustomed to their confinement, except 
in the case of some very wild beast. I never lost a bullock by this means 
of tying up. This system is like other systems, it requires trained hands to 
practise it. I never give feeding cattle unripe tares ; they must be three-parts 
ripe before being cut. I mix the tares when they are sown with a third of white 
peas and a third of oats. When three-parts ripe, especially the white peas, they 
are very good feeding. Fresh clover given along with tares, peas, &c., forms 
a capital mixture. I sow a proportion of yellow Aberdeen turnips early to 
succeed the tares and clover. I find the soft varieties are more apt to run to seed 
■when sown early than yellow turnips. 
" In a week or ten days after the first lot of cattle is taken up from grass 
a second lot is taken up. This is a further relief to the pastures, and the cattle 
left in the fields thrive better. This taking up continues every week or ten days 
to the end of September. At this period all feeding cattle ought to be under 
cover that are intended to be fattened during the succeeding winter. The stronger 
cattle are drafted first, and the lesser ones left until the last cull is put under 
cover. 
" I change the feeding cattle from tares and clover on to Aberdeen yellow 
