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Updated: May 20, 2025
The general method adopted in dressing is to take up the leg with a rope run from the couple; this, however, must be a severe strain on the beasts. The method I adopted when I was in the lean-cattle trade was different: the bullock was driven to a wall; a man, or two men, secured him by the nose and the back of the neck.
The lean-cattle trade is a most dangerous one, and I would not advise any young friend of mine to engage in it. I believe for one who has succeeded twenty have gone down. This is true, at least, as far as droving from the north to the south of Scotland and England is concerned. Home jobbers have been more fortunate, though I am not acquainted with many who have done much good.
I never lost a shilling in East Lothian, or by a bad debt, as a lean-cattle dealer. To be a good judge of store cattle is exceedingly difficult. We have many judges of fat cattle among our farmers and butchers, and a few good judges of breeding stock; but our really good judges of store cattle are exceedingly few.
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.
It may seem a strange fact that no other blacksmith could make nails equal to those made at the Crossgates. The men would not hear of any others; they said they would not drive. The Crossgates blacksmith not only supplied the Scotch drovers, but also the English lean-cattle jobbers. As to fat cattle for market, after they are trained, they should not go a yard except by rail or steamboat.
I bade Falkirk adieu, and turned my attention entirely to the rearing and fattening of cattle at home. I gave up the fascinating business of a lean-cattle jobber, seeing it was done for, and I have never regretted my resolution. The lean-cattle trade was difficult to manage, and in fact was most dangerous.
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