Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE WEST HIGHLANDERS. 45
shifting the cattle, the pasture is kept as much as possible in eatable
condition, that is, neither eaten too bare, nor allowed to get too rank,
or to run into seed.
In the winter and the spring all the cattle except the breeding
cows are fed in the fields ; the grass of which is preserved from the
12th of August to the end of October. When these inclosures become
bare, about the end of December, a little hay is taken into the
field, with turnips or potatoes, once or twice in the day, according to
circumstances, until the middle or end of April. Few of the farmers
have these roots to give them, and the feeding of the out-lying cattle
with straw is quite abolished. If any of them, however, are very
materially out of condition, they are fed with oats in the sheaf. At
two, or three, or four years old, all except the heifers retained for
breeding are sent to market.
There is no variety of breeds of cattle in the Hebrides. They are
pure West Highlanders. Indeed, it is the belief of the Hebridean
farmer, that no other cattle will thrive on these islands, and that
the Kyloes could not possibly be improved by being crossed with any
others. He appeals to his uniform experience, and most correctly so
in the Hebrides, that attempts at crossing have only destroyed the
symmetry of the Kyloes, and rendered them more delicate, and less
suitable to the climate and the pasture.
By selection from the choicest of the stock, the West Highlander
has been materially improved. The Islay," the Isle . of Skye, and
the Argyleshire beast, readily obtains a considerably higher price
than any other cattle reared in the Highlands of Scotland. Mr.
M'Neil has been eminently successful in his attempts to improve the
native breed. He has often obtained £100 for three and four-year-old
bulls out of his stock ; and for one bull he received £200. He never
breeds from bulls less than three years, or more than ten years old
and he disapproves, and rightly in such a climate, of the system of
breeding in and in. He also adheres to that golden rule of breeding,
the careful selection of the female ; and, indeed, it is not a small sum
that would induce
picked cowsJ
the Hebridean farmer to part, with any of his
It is true that grazing has never been the principal object of the
Hebridean farmer, or has scarcely been deemed worthy of his atten-
tion.
It will be concluded from what we have said of the milking pro-
perties of the Kyloe, that the dairy is considered as a matter of little
consequence in the- Hebrides ; and the farmer rarely keeps more
milch cows than will furnish his family with milk and butter and
cheese. The Highland cow will not yield more than a third part of
the milk that is obtained from the Ayrshire one at no great distance
on the main land ; but that milk is exceedingly rich, and the 'butter
procured from it is excellent.
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