76 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 



Ayrshire breed of cattle, for general excellence in whole, young 

 and old, cannot be equalled anywhere. The exhibition for 1865 

 was the 31st consecutively, and at which premiums and medals of 

 the total value of £350 were awarded, — the entries of cattle, sheep, 

 horses, and pigs, being 662 head in all. Occasionally a limited 

 number of as good, or perhaps even one or two superior, ani- 

 mals, are shown at the meetings in Lanarkshire or other dis- 

 tricts, but these are usually picked up at extravagant prices 

 from some of the Ayrshire breeders. It is curious to note how 

 in such a large shire, containing fully 3000 separate collec- 

 tions (number of occupants in Ayrshire is 3300), and most being 

 singly owned, the county prizes so uniformly year after year 

 fall into the same hands amongst the comparatively small number 

 of competitors. Not from any scarcity of really good animals in 

 other byres, for they abound throughout the county, but because 

 the owners of these, either from not being members of the "Ayrshire 

 Agricultural Association, ' or often from a disinclination to shove 

 themselves or their beasts forward, do not compete at the county 

 show, although they do so regularly at their own more private 

 parish ones. A reserved and retiring habit of disposition 

 (averse to public display), is characteristic of the Ayrshire dairy 

 farmers generally, even more than of the same class of men in 

 other Scotch shires — probably a relic of the old covenanting 

 times. This is specially observable in the men of Cunningham 

 and Kyle ; those of Carrick generally having a strain of Irish 

 blood in them, and being more impulsive. Not that the former 

 are less capable on that account (rather the reverse) of being 

 good farmers, or of keeping themselves hien in circumstances — 

 although, truly, with present rents and backward seasons, most 

 of them are gruesomely pinched to make both ends meet. 



Strangers acquire but poor ideas of Ayrshire dairy-stocks from 

 a Hying visit to one of the Ayr shows. The 300 head or so of 

 all classes exhibited, can scarcely be called a fair sample to 

 judge by of a total stock numbering about 80,000, young and 

 old. The most elegant prize cows are frequently not the best 

 milchers. Some atdd crummies, — which, if placed in the yard, 

 the judges would walk past with noses turned heavenwards, — 

 on tiie same feeding as these prizers, will beat them out and out 

 in giving a regular and lengthy yield of big luggiefuls. Prctti- 

 msse-, don't load the cheese-shelves — barring aye, of course, the 

 aid of the dairymaids, charming creatures ! Although the 

 writer may lay down his views with some authority, on grass- 

 lands, grass-seeds, and grass-seeding, as in the preceding section, 

 these having been his lifetime's study almost, he does not pre- 

 tend in the least to put his small knowledge of milch cows in 

 comparison with that of such judges and breeders as — Mr. John 

 Parker, BroomlandSj Irvine ; Mr. Wra. Caldwell, Boydstone, 



