210 Meport on some features of Scottish Agi'iculture. 
to their mothers twice a day. After the beginning of June, the 
cows and calves remain together on the hill, until the latter are 
weaned, which is generally about the end of November or begin- 
ning of December, when the cows are brought into the house at 
night, and hay-feeding is commenced. The calves, now known 
as " stirks," are also housed at night, and are fed in exactly the 
same manner as the cows. 
With this small breeding-herd and the winter-keep of from 
20 to 30 stot stirks bought as yearlings in May, Mr. McKechnie 
finds it necessary to cut at least 120 imperial acres of hay every 
year, either meadow or seeds. He has not more than 25 acres 
under the plough, two-thirds being in oats and the remainder in 
roots, otherwise he might be tempted to keep a few more cows, 
although he has hitherto found that the expenses are too 
great to leave a sufficient margin for profit. Servants' wages 
are now so high, and seasons are so precarious, that he has 
found it more profitable to buy store cattle and breed sheep. 
As a rule, he buys, as already stated, from 20 to 30 yearling 
stot stirks in May, and puts them on the hills or the low 
ground with the sheep, never herding them separately. During 
the next winter they are fed on hay in sheltered fields, this 
treatment commencing about the beginning of the year and 
lasting until the middle of April in good seasons, or until the 
beginning of May in severe weather. The following summer 
they are kept on grass, and they are sold the next October either 
on the farm or at the tryst. After they go away they are kept in 
a similar manner for another year by farmers who have more 
winter keep, and are sold by them the ensuing autumn to be win- 
tered on turnips and made up for the butcher. 
The question of winter keep is, indeed, a most important ele- 
ment in the problem of Sheep versus Cattle in the Highlands of 
Scotland. In face of the expense of feeding and housing cattle 
in winter, coupled with the scarcity, and consequent dearness, of 
labour, there can be little doubt that when wool fetches a good 
price sheep are decidedly more profitable. But of late, wool 
having been comparatively cheap and Highland cattle compara- 
tively dear, it is probable that the one description of stock might 
be found as profitable as the other, although it is doubtful 
whether the return would be as certain from cattle as from sheep. 
The price of Highland cattle has risen enormously of late years, 
partly owing to the decrease in the breeding stocks already 
noticed, and partly to the increased demand for feeding beasts 
on lowland farms ; and, with regard to West Highlanders, more 
particularly on account of the large demand for picturesque 
cattle to graze in parks. 
It is possible that, by careful herding, more cattle might be 
