put it into practice, with results that were eminently satisfactory.

Mr Watson would seem to have been a careful, liberal, and successful feeder, as well as a skilful breeder. A few years after starting his herd, he commenced the practice of allowing calves to suckle cows in the house, and found that it produced excellent results. This plan is described by himself as follows: "The cows intended for nursing generally calve early in the season, about the month of January or February, when a stranger calf is procured from some of the small tenants in the district who have dairies. This calf is suckled with the others by the same cow; and although the cow at first shows great dislike to the stranger, in a few days she receives it very quietly, care being taken that both are put to suck (one on each side) exactly at the same time by tying the calves' bands to the stall or the band of the cow, so as to keep each calf at its own side. They remain with the cow for fifteen or twenty minutes, by which time her milk is perfectly drawn away. As the calves advance in age they eat hay, sliced potatoes, porridge, and other food that they are inclined to take. By the 1st of May, or as soon as grass is ready, they are weaned and turned out from the byre, when two fresh calves are immediately put into their stalls and receive the same treatment, excepting that they are turned out at twelve o'clock, after they have got their suck, to eat grass, and are brought into the byre again in the evening, when the cows come in to be sucked. This set is ready to wean by the 1st of August, and a single calf is put into the feeding-pen and fattened for the butcher, the season being now too late for rearing. As these are fed off, the cows are let off milk, having each suckled five calves. It is necessary to have a very careful and steady person to attend to the suckling, which has to be done three times a-day-viz., early in the morning before the cows are turned out to grass, at mid-day, and in the

evening when the cows come into the byre for the night and get a little cut grass, tares, or other green food. The byre is arranged so that the cows have each a stall of about 4 feet wide, with their heads to the wall; and on the opposite wall the calves are tied up, two in a stall, exactly behind the cow, so that there is little trouble in putting them to the cows, and no chance of misplacing them. The fat calves have in some seasons been sold at £5 each, this being the scarcest time of the year for veal."

Mr Watson gave much attention to the preparing of cattle for the show-yard, and early in his career he in this respect achieved great success. His son, Mr William Watson, says: "The list of awards to my father during his lifetime for various descriptions of stock-in England, Ireland, Scotland, and France-amounted to upwards of five hundred." The first occasion on which he exhibited polled cattle under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland was at Perth in 1829. His first prize pair of polled oxen at that show attracted much attention by their size, symmetry, and quality. One of these was a great beauty, and a choice butcher's animal. He was exhibited at the Smithfield Show in London the same year, and there too he was greatly admired. When slaughtered by a leading metropolitan butcher (Mr Sparks, of High Street, Marylebone), his carcass was found to be of very rare quality, the meat being fine in the grain and well mixed; while his fat weighed no less than 240 lb.-about 84 lb. more than the fat of the famous "Durham Ox." Another remarkable animal shown at Perth in 1829 by Mr Hugh Watson was a heifer, which, like the oxen, was bred by himself, and which, at the request of the Highland Society, was exhibited at the London Smithfield Show as a sample of the excellence to which the Scotch polled breed might be brought. There she was the admired of all admirers. She was then Fears old, and her dead weight was esti

mated at between 130 and 140 Dutch stones. Before being slaughtered, she, like the "Durham Ox,' was publicly exhibited for some time. Her purchaser at

Smithfield paid £50 for her-a very handsome price for more than half a century ago. She was a round, low-set, compact animal, the symmetry and evenness of her parts having been wonderful. The bone of her fore-leg, which her breeder long kept in his possession, is said to have been little thicker than that of a roe-deer. At the time she was killed, her brisket was barely 8 inches from the ground, and her inside fat was found to be equal in weight to one-fourth of her gross dead weight. Another wonderful animal of Mr Hugh Watson's breeding, "Old Grannie," or the Prima Cow, No. 1 in the 'Polled Herd Book,' is noticed in a subsequent chapter. Mr H. H. Dixon, in 'Field and Fern,' says Mr Watson gave the Irish a taste of the quality of his earlier polled celebrities. "His fouryear-old Angus ox [out of Old Grannie] went over, and was placed first for the Purcell Challenge Cup at Belfast, and yet, strange to say, died after all in the plough at the Royal Home Farm, when he was rising eighteen. Still his fame was in all lands, as a traveller in India found his portrait pasted up on a temple of Vishnu."

Besides Mr Watson, there were in Angus a good many enterprising agriculturists, who at a very early date-some even earlier than Mr Watson-devoted attention to the breeding and improving of the native polled cattle. Prominent among these were the late Lord Panmure; the late Sir James Carnegie; Lord Southesk; the late Messrs Mustard, Leuchland and Fithie; the late Mr Bowie, Mains of Kelly, and his son, Mr Alexander Bowie, the present tenant; the late Mr William Fullerton, Mains of Ardestie; the late Mr Ruxton, Farnell; the Hon. Charles Carnegie; Mr Ferguson, Kinnochtry; Captain Carnegie of Craigo; Mr J. Lyell, Shielhill; the late Mr Scott, Balwyllo; Mr Lyall, Carcary; Colonel Dalgairns of Balgavies; Mr

Aymer, East Carcary; Mr Leslie, The Thorn; Mr Archibald Whyte, Braedownie; Mr W. Whyte, Spott; the late Mr Lyell, Arrat; the late Mr Goodlet, Bolshan; the late Mr Pierson, The Guynd, &c. Of these Lord Southesk, Mr Alexander Bowie, Mr Ferguson, Mr Leslie, and Mr Whyte still possess herds, and their operations will be noticed afterwards.

Accounts will be found of two different herds at Kinnaird Castle-one of great antiquity, annihilated by rinderpest in 1865, and another founded about two years ago. There is good reason to believe that the property of the Carnegie family has long been a stronghold of the breed. Ochterlony, in his description of Angus in 1684, 1685, states that the Earl of Southesk owned the whole of the parishes of Kinnaird and Farnell, which contained ane excellent breed of horses, cattle, and sheep ;" and from other sources we gather that polled cattle had been bred extensively on the estates even before the commencement of the present century. The Hon. Charles Carnegie, brother of the present Earl of Southesk, has kindly furnished us with an account of the extinct Kinnaird herd, in which he states that it is impossible to trace the origin of that old stock, "which had probably gone on from generation to generation from a very remote period."

Mr Bowie, Mains of Kelly, owns the oldest herd now existing. It was commenced in 1809-the year after the foundation of the Keillor herd. What we shall have to say regarding it, more particularly in reference to the bulls produced in the herd, will fully establish its title to rank as one of the most useful agents in the improvement of the breed. Mr Ferguson, Kinnochtry, commenced to rear polled cattle in 1835, and has ever since been a devoted, intelligent, and successful breeder.

It is generally understood that the late Lord Panmure (born 1771, died 1852) did not himself establish a herd of polled cattle till about 1835. We have, however, good

reason for believing that long before that time-in fact, prior to the opening of the present century-he had given close attention to the rearing of the native polled cattle, and had done much to encourage his tenants and others in improving the breed. Mr William Fullerton gives it as his opinion that few men did more for "the doddies" than Lord Panmure, and remarks: "He not only bred beasts himself which did good service, but, as President of the East Forfarshire Association, he fostered the breed. He stimulated his tenants to breed good doddies, and amongst others, Mr Bowie, Mains of Kelly, and his worthy father. I must confess he filliped me on to try my skill as a breeder." In another manuscript document in our possession, Mr Fullerton says: "In the early part of this century, Lord William Ramsay Maule of Panmure, seeing there were points in the doddies capable of being improved, tried the experiment of having so many Angus cows put to Galloway bulls. Procuring eight or ten of these bulls, he had them suitably located over his estates. The result of this crossing was such a failure, that all attempts to improve the old breed in this direction were abandoned. Lord Panmure after this disappointment set himself to form a Society for the purpose of advancing the agriculture of the district, and, in particular, for improving the old doddie breed. In this he was greatly aided by the other landlords of the east of Angus, more especially Mr Arklay of Dunninald. The movement culminated in the formation of the East Forfarshire Farming Association, Lord Panmure being chosen perpetual President, and Mr Arklay, Vice-President for the first year. No breed of cattle were awarded prizes but the breed of the county. The competition took place yearly on Trinity Muir in the latter end of July or first week of August. Members competing had to bring forward at least a pair of queys, and for every 100 acres and above, which they farmed, they were bound to bring forward another quey. In com