In the economy of Scottish agriculture, the two mountain breeds of sheep, the Blackface and the Cheviot, play a most important part. Not only do they convert the rough herbage of the hills into wool and store sheep for fattening, but they also provide low country farmers with these handsome Crossbred ewes that are to be found everywhere, and which in their turn produce the heavyweight fattening sheep favoured by crop-growing farmers for the double purpose of converting aftermath, grass and roots into mutton and of maintaining the fertility of their soils.

Scotland is a mountainous country, the area of mountain and heath land being very much larger than that of arable land. It is this immense area of poor quality, exposed, rugged land that provides the breeding ground for our great sheep industry.

The total number of sheep in Scotland in 1949, according to the June returns, was 7,102,873. In 1939 there were eight million. About two-thirds of the breeding ewes belong to the Scottish Blackface breed ; the others are Cheviots, Border Leicesters and crossbreds.

The Scottish sheep industry is today merely a part of the United Kingdom sheep industry governed centrally through national price control. Nevertheless, Scotland, considered as a geographical unit, does and will remain, and geography has, as I need not remind you here, a great deal to do with any agricultural industry, whether Scottish or otherwise.

That fact is apt to be forgotten where we have—as we have today in the United Kingdom—a planned food policy, implemented by a planned agricultural price policy. Such planning, enforced by price structure, will inevitably change the agricultural face of any country. It has already changed the agricultural face of this country.

Area covered.—The area dealt with in this paper is that which covers the Counties of Angus, Perth, Kinross, Fife, the Lothians, Haddington, Berwick, Peebles, Selkirk and Roxburgh. These counties embrace some of the finest arable land in Scotland, including some of the best stock breeding, rearing and fattening farms. Although there has been some change in the type of livestock carried on the arable lands, the arable output within the area was stepped up to the maximum during the war years, and is still working at this high level.

I propose to assume that the lowland farmer either breeds, rears and feeds his own stock, or brings them in as stores to finish off. His supply of store cattle will come from higher lying farms which are not so suitable for feeding, from small holdings in the lowlands, from marginal hill land farms, or from Ireland.

Breeds of Cattle for Beef.—The ideal animal for beef production must definitely be of the approved beef type. There are quite a few breeds of cattle in Britain of this type. Of course, in Scotland we depend chiefly on the Aberdeen-Angus and the Shorthorn, and in my opinion the best feeding animal is a cross between the two; or if a good bull of either breed is used on a strong dual purpose type of cow. the calf should make a useful carcase.

Scotland in the past has never been recognised as having an important pig industry. The reason for this, I think,is that in the years before the last war the pig was definitely looked down on by the larger arable farmers, and was considered a dirty and smelly animal to have about the farm. These farmers, therefore, stuck to their fattening cattle and flocks of sheep, although one often heard it said by them that fattening bullocks did not pay, but it was necessary to obtain muck for the arable land.