ifferent lots, feeding the culls and
wintering the tops. By this method I secure a lot of wintering cattle
for the great Christmas market of the ensuing year, without one bad or
indifferent beast among them. The price I have obtained for several
years, with the exception of the culls of my winterers, has been L35
a-head.

In Aberdeenshire I consider that a large bullock ought to pay 25s. to
30s. a-month for keep, if he is properly treated. We often get less,
and sometimes a little more, owing in some measure to the way in which
the cattle are bought, the price of beef at the time, the season of the
year the cattle are bought, and the time they are sold. Before we were
threatened with the cattle plague I always made a point of buying my
beasts early in the season, beginning in January and buying monthly up
to May. I had thus a chance of the best lots, whereas, if I deferred
making my selections, these went into other hands.

II. REMINISCENCES.

Fifty years ago, and for many a long year thereafter, there were no
shorthorns in the north. There were few turnips grown, and few cattle
fed. The great firm of the Williamsons, who rented St John's Wells,
Bethelnie, and Easter Crichie; James Allardyce of Boyndsmill; the
Harveys of Beidlestone and Danestone, and a few others, were almost the
only parties who attempted the feeding of cattle. Mr Harvey of Ardo,
who was then tenant of Danestone, died only the other day, aged ninety.
Messrs Williamson and Reid were the great Aberdeen butchers at that
period, and the feeders had either to sell to them or send their cattle
on to Barnet Fair on their own account, or in the hands of the jobber.
The journey occupied a month, and hay was their food. The cattle stood
the road best upon hay, and it was surprising how fresh and sound the
drovers took them up. Disease was unknown; the lung disease, the
foot-and-mouth disease, are comparatively recent importations.

I was in the lean-cattle trade when foot-and-mouth disease first broke
out, and got a sad fright when I came up to Falkirk and found my drove
affected. When it got into a drove on their transit, the loss was
heavy. At that time the cattle were not made more than half fat, else
they could never have performed their journeys.

I was well acquainted with the Messrs Williamson, and, when a boy, was
the guest of the late George Williamson, St John's Wells; of the late
James Williamson, Bethelnie; and of William Williamson, Ea