74 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYBSH1RE. 



paying mucli better than growing oats or wheat, but will the 

 present high prices for ryegrass seeds be maintained ? Simply 

 impossible. They are the result in great part of strong personal 

 competition amongst the two or three wholesale seed buyers, who 

 have (in reality) been losing money by it for some years ; and, 

 further, owing to the late high prices, the practice has been ex- 

 tending so much in Ireland and elsewhere, that in a year or two, 

 if the extension goes on as presently, more seed by much will 

 annually be saved than necessary for the sowing of the whole 

 three kingdoms, and plenty to spare for the continent and 

 colonies besides. Talk of distilling gin from ryegrass ! How 

 would it pay distillers to purchase ryegrass seeds at 30s. or 

 more per 210 lbs., when they can get 280 lbs. of oats for 15s., 

 or 450 lbs. of barley for 27s. ? 



SECTION V. 



Ayrshire Cows— Milk— Butter —Cheese -Yeals and Young Cattle— Swine 

 — Pet-Sheep — " Bowings " — Farmers' Clubs, &c. 



The dairy stocks of Ayrshire cows are by much the leading 

 feature in the husbandry of this county, and the farmers are 

 deservedly proud of their symmetrically formed and famed milk 

 yielders. The " Ayrshires " are now very generally acknow- 

 ledged as the best breed of cattle for dairy purposes in Great 

 Britain. At all events they are much better adapted for the 

 comparatively scanty pastures of Scotland than heavier bodied 

 breeds, such as' the I J ere fords, the Devons, and the shorthorns 

 of England. The origin and gradual formation of the breed is 

 almost unknown'; but it is a matter of very slight importance 

 to us moderns, who first introduced them or how they originated. 

 Very probably the blood of " the cow with the crumpled horn " 

 — that tossed the dog, that worried the cat, and all that — viz., 

 the Holdernesse or the Alderney cow, had something to do 

 with the process of " natural selection !" Crumpled horns, how- 

 ever, are now looked upon as a grave defect in Ayrshires. 

 Horns are merely dangerous ornaments, and, as breeders well 

 know, can be moulded to any form to suit the taste of the times. 

 The Ayrshires are now general over the county ; there not be- 

 ing more than a few scores of the old black Galloway breed leit 

 in the extreme south of Carrick. 



The " points indicating excellence in Ayrshire cows," as fixed 

 by a committee appointed by the "Ayrshire Agricultural Associa- 

 tion" in 1853, will be appended to this report. Sufficient now t<> 

 say, that, in respect to elegance of shape, &c, the Ayrshires have 

 probably been brought as near perfection as is possible for beasts 

 of their size and make to arrive at. This has been effected mostly 

 by the continuous efforts of the parish farmers' clubs, chiefly 



