Polled Aberdeen and Angus Cattle. 357 
rule black in colour, some having been brindletl, some dark red, 
some black with brown tinge and white spots, and others what 
Youatt calls "silver-coloured yellow." They were reported to 
have been excellent beef-cattle, producing meat of the very 
finest quality, and yielding a large quantity of beef in com- 
parison with their live weight. They also got the credit of 
having been good dairy-cattle, the Buchan cows in particular 
being noted both for the quantity and quality of their milk. 
The late Mr. Macpherson, factor for the Duke of Richmond at 
Huntly, states that early in the century Buchan cows were used 
in Banffshire for "the purposes of the dairy." Youatt states 
that Buchan cows sometimes gave as much as seven gallons of 
ii\ilk per day, three to four gallons having been general ; and that 
too with poor feeding compared to what dairy-cows now get — 
principally oat-straw in winter, with sometimes a little plotted 
hay, — hay on which boiling water had been poured. 
II. — Improvement of the Beeed. 
There is good reason for believing that some time before the 
advent of the present century the excellent beef-producing pro- 
perties of the Angus Doddies and Buchan Humlies had been dis- 
covered, and to a slight extent developed by the exercise of more 
than ordinary care in breeding and feeding. While Aberdeen- 
shire may fairly enough claim to have in later days contributed 
more largely to the advancement of the breed, the county of 
Forfar is equally well entitled to the credit of having been the first 
to commence its improvement in thorough earnest. By a good 
many enterprising Forfarshire agriculturists, notably the late 
Mr. Mustard, Leuchland, and the late Mr. Hugh Watson's father, 
herds of the pure polled breed had been formed, and some im- 
provement effected by the advent of the century. The systematic 
improvement of the breed, however, must be dated from 1808. 
In that year Mr. Hugh Watson, tenant of the farm of Keillor, 
Meigle, Forfarshire, laid the foundation of what in his skilful 
hands became a widely celebrated herd of pure-bred polled 
cattle. Hugh Watson was a man of surpassing intellect, great 
perseverance, and accurate judgment ; a man in many ways 
presenting a striking resemblance to his great prototypes in the 
Shorthorn world, the brothers Colling, who had commenced the 
systematic improvement of their favourite breed just twenty-eight 
years (in 1780) before the famous Keillor polled herd was founded. 
It has often been remarked with truth, that what the Collings 
were to the Shorthorns, Hugh Watson was to the Polled Aber- 
deen and Angus breed. He was the first great improver of the 
