THE ZETLAND BREED. 
PLATE Y. 
COW, Five Years’ Old, the property of Andrew Duncan, Esq. of Coningsburgh, Ered on the Island 
called the Mainland. 
In the Zetland Islands, races of Cattle, Sheep, and Horses, have existed from time immemorial, distinct in their characters 
from those which are indigenous to the Northern Highlands, and other parts of Scotland. These remote islands, the Thule of the 
Roman writers, were early united to the kingdom of Norway, and, in the middle ages, were in the hands of those lawless rovers, 
whose piracies extended to the fairer portions of Europe. The Islands were at length transferred to the Crown of Scotland, and 
were for ages subjected to the servitude of the feudal system in its most cruel form. But the inhabitants, though mixed with their 
conquerors, remained essentially Norwegian; and, even until the last century, the Norse language continued to be that of the op¬ 
pressed inhabitants. The domestic animals of the country were, in like manner, distinct from those of the Celtic inhabitants of 
the Main, and to this day present the traces of their Scandinavian descent. 
The cattle are distinctly Norwegian in their characters, and a similar race extends to Iceland. They are small, but of very 
good form when pure, and fatten with great quickness when carried to superior pastures. Their horns are short, their skin is 
soft, and their flesh is equal to that of any cattle produced in the British Islands. They are of various colours, generally party- 
coloured, and tending more to the lighter shades than the cattle of the Highlands. The females receive the male at an earlier 
age than is known in the case of any other breed in this country. The heat occurs at the age of five or six months, and has 
been observed even at four months, indicating an early precocity of the animals, and a tendency to arrive soon at old age. The 
cows are tolerably good milkers, in which respect they agree with the cattle of Norway, and differ from those of the Highlands; 
and m this respect too, they agree with the cattle of Jersey and the islands of the Channel, which are likewise believed to be of 
Norwegian origin. 
These cattle are smaller than those of Norway, which is to be ascribed partly to the absence of shelter, and partly to the 
want of artificial food. These islands, though exposed to perpetual storms from the tempestuous seas that surround them, have 
not so cold a climate as Norway; but they are totally destitute of the noble forests which, in the latter country, afford shelter from 
the icy blasts of winter, while the tillage of the country is every way inferior. 
Norway is a country of independent proprietors, maintained, by their laws of equal succession, in a happy mediocrity of 
condition, cultivating their paternal fields, and reaping the direct reward of their individual industry. In the islands of Zetland, 
the cultivators of the soil are mostly miserable tenants, who labour for others, and have neither the means nor the will to call 
forth the resouices of their country. Hence it is, that, while the rude industry of the Norwegians suffices to supply their domestic 
animals with such food as the country affords, the cattle of the Zetland Islands are left almost in a state of nature, without suffi¬ 
cient sustenance m winter, and with scarce any other shelter than the desolate rocks of the country supply. Thus they remain 
without that development of form which sufficient food and careful treatment never fail to produce. Like the Sheep of the same 
country, they eat the fuci and other algse of the coasts, and wait the ebbing of the tide that they may procure this species of food. 
The cattle of Zetland have necessarily become much mixed with those of Orkney, and the latter again with the breeds of the 
Northern Highlands. These mixed races are rarely equal to those of pure descent. The crossing, too, has never been pursued on 
fixed principles, and hence the modern cattle of Zetland are far inferior to what they might have been rendered by cultivating 
with care the parent stock. But, above all things, the starving of the animals while young has contributed to render them puny 
and degenerate, as compared with the ancient Scandinavian stock. It is pleasing, however, to record, that the seeds of improve¬ 
ment are scattered m these islands, and that the attention of intelligent gentlemen is now directed to the improvement of the 
country, aided by the increased intercourse which steam navigation has opened up with the markets of the south. This latter 
circumstance may be expected to increase the profits of the producers of cattle, and enable them gradually to extend their supplies 
of artificial food. 
A question of economical importance is, the manner in which the existing race of Zetland cattle can be improved.* The 
first means certainly are a better system of feeding and general treatment applied to the animals when young. The next mode is 
the introduction of suitable males for breeding. These might be obtained from the West Highlands, but the end would pro- 
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