Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE WEST HIGHLANDERS; 49
haps, docility of temper ; and that will be acquired when improvements
in agriculture have rendered it unnecessary for the beast to
wander so far over so wild a country, in search of food, and when he
will be earlier and more perfectly domesticated. The Highlander,
however, must be reared for the grazier alone. Every attention to
increase his weight, in_ order to make him capable of agricultural
labor— every effort to qualify him for the dairy, will not only lessen
his hardiness of constitution and propensity to fatten, but will fail in
rendering him valuable for the purpose at which the farmer foolishly
aims. "The character of the Highlander must still be, that he will
pay better for his quantity of food than any other breed, and will
fatten where any other breed would only live. This is the secret of
profitably breeding or grazing the Highland cattle.
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THE WEST HIGHLAND FAT OX.
The management both of the cow and her calf depend much on
the object winch the breeder principally pursues. If he studies the
character of his. stock, he makes little butter and cheese, and generally
rears a calf for every cow, giving it the greater part of her milk. A
likely bull-calf is sometimes allowed the milk of two cows for a con-
siderable time, and often for six months. When the calves are
weaned, they are fed on the hills during the summer, and brought on
"the lower grounds in winter; and, if the pasture is not good, they
are occasionally fed with straw and hay. It is after the first winter
that the absurd and cruel system of overstocking and starvation com-