74 
Shorthorns  in  Scotland  and  Ireland. 
of  the  season,  and  never  pays  less  than  50  guineas.  “I  find  it 
the  greatest  advantage,”  says  Mr.  Massey,  “ to  use  a Shorthorn 
bull,  as  by  doing  so  I am  enabled  to  sell  the  cattle  I breed 
a year  earlier  than  I otherwise  could.  So  much  do  I consider 
breeding  essential,  that  I would  give  an  extra  price  for  a lot  of 
bullocks  that  I knew  to  be  descended  from  a good  Shorthorn 
bull.  Without  breeding,  I find  it  very  hard  to  bring  the  animals 
out  properly  fattened,  and  every  one  knows  that  that  is  an 
important  point.  Cattle  when  good  and  well  finished  will 
sell  fairly  well  even  in  a dull  market;  while  ill-bred,  half-fed 
animals  will  likely  have  to  be  driven  home  again.  I am  sorry  to 
say  farmers,  as  a rule,  look  more  to  colour  and  size  than  quality, 
and  if  a bull  is  big  and  red,  they  at  once  buy  him.  I always 
keep  a Shorthorn  bull  which  I give  free  to  neighbours,  and  one 
would  be  surprised  to  see  the  nice  cattle  sometimes  bred  by 
these  bulls  out  of  very  poor  cows.” 
While  breeding  Shorthorns  at  Islanmore,  Mr.  E.  J.  Smith, 
some  twelve  years  ago,  made  an  interesting  experiment  with  the 
crossing  of  a Shorthorn  bull  and  Kerry  cows.  From  a lot  of 
Kerries  passing  his  back-gate,  he  selected  ten  two-year-old 
heifers,  for  which  he  paid  4/.  10s.  a-head.  To  these  he  put  a 
yearling  Shorthorn  bull.  Six  had  bull  calves  ; and  these  calves, 
after  the  third  day,  were  put  on  warm  skim-milk,  to  which  was 
added,  when  the  calves  were  old  enough  to  digest  it,  gruel  made 
from  ground  linseed-cake.  They  were  taught  to  eat  linseed- 
cake,  turnips,  and  hay  as  soon  as  possible,  and  had  a run  on  the 
after-grass  along  with  the  common  calves.  During  their  first 
winter  they  were  kept  in  a small  yard,  with  a shed  to  lie  in, 
and  got  plenty  of  hay  and  sliced  turnips,  with  1 lb.  of  cake 
each  per  day.  Next  season  they  were  kept  on  the  grass  till 
November,  when  they  were  put  in  a straw-yard  with  other 
bullocks,  getting  turnips,  hay,  and  straw.  In  the  following  year 
they  were  tied-in  off  the  grass  early  in  October,  and  were  sold  in 
March  in  the  Dublin  market,  when  about  three  years  old,  for 
26 1.  a-head.  Eight  of  the  Kerry  cows  were  sold  a week  before, 
very  fat,  at  18/.  a-head.  Beef  was  then  very  high  in  price, 
“ top  ” varieties  bringing  about  95s.  per  cwt. 
In  the  counties  of  Cork  and  Waterford  the  improvement  by 
Shorthorn  bulls,  first  becoming  manifest  about  thirty  years  ago, 
has  gone  on  rapidly  during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years.  Many 
farmers  unfortunately  still  use  bulls  that  are  not  pure-bred,  merely 
highly  graded  Shorthorns.  The  larger  dairy-larmers,  however, 
are  year  by  year  becoming  more  anxious  to  have  well-bred  bulls, 
and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that,  in  the  course  of  a few 
years,  the  number  of  pure-bred  Shorthorn  bulls  in  use  through- 
out these  counties  will  be  much  larger  than  at  the  present  time. 
