ON THE AYRSHIRE BREED OF CATTLE. ] 33 



si)riiig without assistance. Very little agricultural improvement 

 was effected until the close of the American War ; and much of 

 what has been done is due to the pioneers of the present century. 



So recently as 1811, in a report upon Ayrshire, the cattle were 

 described as being almost wholly black. That there was a 

 certain uniformity of colour may be gathered from the fact that 

 provincial terms were invented, having reference to the location 

 of certain colours. Thus, a cow marked with white towards the 

 extremity of her tail was said to be " tagged "; if a strip of white 

 ran along the ridge of her back, she was " rigged"; one with white 

 on her neck was a " hawked " cow ; a dark one with a white face, 

 a " bassened " cow; one with a profusion of white spots upon her 

 body, a " spotted " cow ; and one with large patches of white, a 

 " bawdy," being a corruption of the term " piebald." The cattle 

 in Cunningham were described as being small in stature and 

 badly fed ; they were principally black, gaily dotted wdth white 

 spots; their horns were crooked and irregular, and marked with 

 ringlets near their base — a true criterion that their " lines were 

 not cast in pleasant places." 



The improvement in the Ayrshire breed of cattle dates from 

 the year 1750, when, it is stated on competent, authority, that 

 the Earl of Marchmont had brought from his estates in Berwick- 

 shire a bull and several cows, which he had some time previously 

 procured from the Bishop of Durham, of the Teeswater breed, 

 then known by the name of the Dutch or Hoi stein breed. These 

 cattle were of a light brown colour, spotted with white. They 

 were introduced into the district of Kyle by Bruce Campbell, his 

 lordship's factor, and rapidly getting into repute, their progeny 

 gradually spread into the adjoining districts. A bull from this 

 stock was eventually j)urchased, at what was considered a very 

 long price in those days, by a Mr John Hamilton, who raised a 

 numerous herd by crossing with the native cattle. Tradition 

 asserts that other proprietors brought to their farms foreign cows 

 of the same breed, and assuming this to be correct, it may readily 

 be conceived that the dispersion of the progeny would exercise a 

 wonderful influence in improving the native breeds. About the 

 vsame time that these cattle were introduced, Mr John Dunlop, of 

 Dunlop House, in the Cunningham district, purchased several 

 stranger animals, from which the Cunningham cattle of the 

 present day are descended. The first crosses were obtained by 

 coupling bulls of the stranger with cows of the native race, but the 

 offspring had an ill-shaped, mongrel appearance, their bones being 

 large and prominent ; yet in time these became toned down so 

 much, that by continued care in breeding, they at length possess all 

 those well-defined features considered so desirable in dairy cattle. 



In 1769, John Orr of Barrowsfield bought in some stranger 

 cattle, and his example is said to have been copied by several 



