A Successful Stock Breeder

Southland Times, Issue 90124, 25 January 1886, Page 4

A Successful Stock Breeder

In the newspapers of , the closing days of NOTember and first week or so of liecembex, for a considerable number of yeats, says the Njß. "AgricaHnrist, probably no name among Scotch feeders of stock and tsnaat>farraera Was so promiceDtly before lbs public as that D( Mr Jameo Bruce, Burnalde, Fochabora, Sforayshire. Thirteen years ago he wa* the heroof Sa}i:bfi:ld, and since then, as well m Jbcfprejjlr many honours in the r foremost livestock contest?, Mr Bruce wrs ft bofn accl bred 'farmer and jadge of live r*y<&'. fxnet-ftiity cattle." Aa elder too of Mr Bruce, Broadiatid, Abardeeosh-re, cur departed friend inherited a keen admiration of grerything agricultural, sad especially of the r>i liv«jtbck, nature. Reared an deceased wag *| fome of the fliissfc ehonhoras and bor-s* - -'Cf their day in the north arou^H hira, he at an Mrly age, with that aptitnd-i vyhicu a >r,ld not. kare been but inheried, » e-'^rne, bafors be WMlong ont of his teea j , au fscr.llenT. jadge Jot etocfci Locally, ibas great facuiy was display cd. ia bia b^foe be left the paternal hods. It grew mote and mo; c sppart-nt aa • "y^ftfs'rolled On t v Mr; Brae?, wh^n' not raaoy ytarj out of his kens, bscaass tenant of the fiye farm pfßttrnsids. near B\jcbabers, oa tie property. Oa tbat faina , pf good alluvial so : l, skirtii>g iha river 3pey, it woo l d be interesting to know how many - loni of cake and other feeiiotf stuffs have consumed d cring las quar:tr «f a ceo- • tnryt ; Few, i£ acy) fajrm-;<..{ « he same dijaeatioDs bava bad so muob nattioioiit oonreyod to tbein tßrbugh anim tls ss hssb en theo-^se on Barnside. Ihit, (i-jnhtle^*. aooounfs for tbe high niaDUrial state of the f-iim, and the generally good crops which ii has f >r many years grown. The soil is ni.tnr«tlly kindly — „ ;, ready to yield to generon'S treatment. This it got from -he departed tenant, and he was not thereby the loser. : Wbiie his crops of wheat, barley, andtursips were often worth a long journey to see, the tt&ng of his tramp, so to speak, was gens, rally his live stock. His hercl of Bhorthoras ■; was never very large. Itvwas mainly compored,; on the female side, of selections from the fine old stock at Broadland, To those.

fYmaleß, bulls selected—with the aHlfnl and penetrating eye of the deceased— from the » ; :jier,dß_ofjtne^Pa^e;Of Bucpleucb, Mr Wi Us, Carperby, He Handley, Mr Hutcbinson, and wer« put^ with the" reaalt that the amali pedigree stock 8t Barnside has for years tamed oat the best, thoiigh not the largest, lot of yearling balls sold in Scotland, If it is true, as we believe it fa. that nobody in Scotland could mate shorthorns more sac* ce*sfally. or skilfully than the Jate Mr Bruce, It is perfectly certsin that no maa in the .United Kingdom, or for that matter in tLe world, could beat him, aided so farj no doubt, by his herdsman, in matpri»jg aud brioging .the animaiß but. That applies to eithec fat 'C Of breeding stock shown. .. Mr Brace's jadgnietit stood h'm iagood itead here, .He has had ft-wef ll&tiks, U we may co tei m it, at 6hbw6 which he p» troniatd ■•ttonany-oiber exhibitor of our acquaiataace, extending over a quan er of ac* ntury The (explanation iB this. Hs was too go^d a jadge to go far from home with a doubtful card, he was, indeed, one of the most sifting judges of cattle of modern times. JBnt be w«s en. dowed with another gift. Kp man of o«r acquaint&ace, call it uatiooal, iote.'n»tional, Earopean, or what the reader will,^ could «Bti- ; suite the merits or probable /outcome i bf -a pedigres or other aaimal more readily and reliably than Mr Bruce could do. Tht', - "■ donbtlefs, -accoiinted -for the feet that he bought, many a lean animalandia after years ibok ieadin? hpooars with it. He did co ■^ visibly exercise otaig;ift that has beetf 5 ~ extended to ygry- i ew 4ndeed^ but was in* .r^-S^^" ; by : him.:.->'-iie^nnqutßt|d't;a?>ly,.^kße^ftv: beast,' whether^t was 'Wn or fatj famifehiug, OT tfoTa&i }' teiice, probably, hUnneotssfss a breeder, aod^e^pfipially^B a feeder; In the format teipgotj keepiog in vie^ his rasouroeg

had no superior in the United Kingdom. Tbore are, probably, half a doz*n, from Land's End to John o' Groats, who could have brought an animal ' out' as well as Mr Bruce was in the habit of doing. Smithfield I champion honours have gone to Burnside, and that, too, with a polled black oz, in the selection of! which-Mr Bmce> judgment and penetration vrere strikvugly manifested . The animal was bred and reared until he was nearly two years old on the verge of the Duke oi Richmond and Gordon's deer forest— on Mr Macpherson's farm of Achlochrach, Glenrionec We never saw his grace look more pleasantly than when, in his presence, and after a fresh eet of judges had been at work I (the otheis having wriggled an hour to no i Durpose), the fiat was given in favour of the , Scot.

From what we have said, it may readily be perceived that Mr Brace's death at so early an age is a loss not only to his interesting young family, but to Soottish agriculture, and nobody outside the strict family .circle laments more than the writer of this article does, his Heath It is premature, but he has sodb bearing his honoured name, and we hope that one of them will continue in the tenancy of the farm which, in the presence of its owner, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, was brought into prominence at Smithfield in 1872.