218 Report on some features of Scottish Agriculture. 
up with his lot, as there may be half-a-dozen or more lots in a 
stance at one time. It is commonly thought that sheep, as well 
as cattle, sent to market by road, are presented to the buyer in 
better condition than if they had travelled by rail. 
In the southern and midland districts of Scotland, hill-farms 
are generally stocked with breeding ewes, and the wedder lambs 
are sold either to the butcher or for hogging, the superior quality 
of the land rendering this the more profitable system ; but in the 
northern and higher districts a mixed or wedder stock is found 
most remunerative. 
Cattle. 
With the exception of calves from a few milch cows, no cattle 
are bred by Mr. Mitchell. He generally buys about 40 three- 
year-old Highland bullocks in May, and grazes them on rough 
land during the summer. They are wintered on the meadow-hay 
of the previous season that has not been consumed by the Ben 
Lomond sheep, and about one-third of them are housed on turnips 
and a little cake. Highland cattle are not fond of the byre, and 
none would be tied up at Blairvockie but for the sake of the 
manure ; in fact, those left out and wintered on meadow-hay alone 
are fit for the butcher before those which are kept in byres and 
given a moderate quantity of turnips and cake. The next season 
they are all turned on to the feeding pastures about the 1st of 
May, and by summer-grazing they are rendered fit for the Glasgow 
butchers by the beginning of September. 
In former years it was Mr. Mitchell's custom to graze annually 
about 100 West Highland heifers ; but they do not pay at the en- 
hanced prices which they have since commanded as store stock, 
owing to the more restricted supply, in consequence of a much 
smaller number being now bred. Until 20 years ago, Mr. Mitchell 
was himself a breeder of West Highland cattle, and he then sent 
grazing cattle on the hills amongst his stock sheep ; but since he 
has discontinued this system he has found that fewer sheep have 
died from braxey, although he cannot assert that there is any 
connexion between that disease and the companionship of cattle 
and sheep. The reasons which induced him to abandon his herd 
were chiefly the losses consequent on the liability to abortion in 
Highland cows, and the difficulty of providing winter keep for 
a breeding herd. As a matter of experience he has found that, 
notwithstanding the enhanced prices commanded by the pic- 
turesque West Highlanders, feeding pays better than breeding, 
chiefly because aged cattle do not require so much winter keep 
as breeding cows and young stock. As a contribution to the 
artistic literature of agriculture, I may mention that the West 
Highlanders, painted by Mdlle. Rosa Bonheur, in her well-known 
