Produced by Steven Giacomelli and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) CATTLE AND CATTLE-BREEDERS BY WILLIAM M'COMBIE, M.P. TILLYFOUR SECOND EDITION, REVISED WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXIX Transcriber's Note: The advertisements and reviews that preceded the title page have been moved to the end of this text. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE FEEDING OF CATTLE, ETC. 1 II. REMINISCENCES, 34 III. THE CATTLE TRADE, THEN AND NOW, 67 IV. BLACK POLLED ABERDEEN AND ANGUS CATTLE AND SHORTHORNS, 86 V. HINTS ON THE BREEDING AND CARE OF CATTLE, 99 CATTLE AND CATTLE-BREEDERS. I. THE FEEDING OF CATTLE, ETC. (_Read before the Chamber of Agriculture._) As my friend Mr Stevenson and some other members of the Chamber of Agriculture have expressed a desire that I should read a paper on my experience as a feeder of cattle, I have, with some hesitation, put together a few notes of my experience. I trust the Chamber will overlook the somewhat egotistical form into which I have been led in referring to the subject of dealing in cattle. My father and my grandfather were dealers in cattle. The former carried on a very extensive business: he had dealings with several of the most eminent feeders in East Lothian; among others, with the late Adam Bogue, Linplum, John Rennie of Phantassie, Mr Walker, Ferrygate, &c. I cannot express how much I reverence the memory of the late Adam Bogue, as one of the finest specimens of a kind-hearted gentleman I have ever met. Other friends of my father and of myself in East Lothian I also recall with the greatest respect; among these let me mention William Brodie, John Brodie, William Kerr, John Slate, Archibald Skirving, and Mr Broadwood, farmers, all eminent as feeders of stock. My father's chief business-connection was with East Lothian; but he had also a connection with Mid-Lothian and the county of Fife, and a large trade with England. At one of the Michaelmas Trysts of Falkirk he sold 1500 cattle. He wished to give all the members of his family a good education. I was kept at school, and was afterwards two years at college; but to this day I regret my inattention when at school.