82 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURE OF AYRSHIRE. 



the farmers of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire doing in butter to 

 a much greater extent proportionally than those of this county. 

 It is not necessary to go into details of the mode of butter 

 making, as these differ in no way from those followed in 

 other shires, and some making it of better quality, some of 

 worse. In respect to the practical working ol the butter, the 

 reporter fancies that the gudewives and lasses of Ayrshire will 

 stand at par with most makers in the kingdom. However, 

 since the annual " Great show of dairy produce " in October was 

 started in Kilmarnock, the quality of the butter shown has been 

 yearly improving, especially of the cured; and in proof of which, 

 three of the most famed Lanarkshire makers exhibited in 1864, 

 but failed in carrying off a prize. At the above " Great show," 

 one of the elass'es for cheese is open to Britain and Ireland, a 

 few for both butter and cheese open to Scotland, most of the 

 classes open to the three shires of Ayr, Kirkcudbright, and 

 Wigtown, and one alone confined to Ayrshire. It is the largest 

 existing show of the kind ; the number of separate lots or 

 " entries " (1 cwt. each, at least, or above, mostly, for cheese) 

 competing in the cheese classes, representing an amount of fully 

 1,000 tons in the dairies from which they came. In 1863 the 

 entries for butter were 197, in 1864 — 240. For cheese in 1863 

 the entries were 531, in 1864 — 636. The money prizes awarded 

 in 1864 for cheese amounted to £100 ; ditto for butter to 

 £36 10s. ; besides gold, silver, and bronze medals, and com- 

 mendations. This show, like the great cattle one at Ayr, is 

 under the charge and got up by the " Ayrshire Agricultural 

 Association ; " and much credit indeed is due to the worthy 

 and most indefatigable secretaries, the Messrs M'Murtrie of 

 Ayr, for the yearly increasing success attending both. But- 

 ter, like cheese, for its quality, is much indebted to good 

 house conveniences and fit utensils ; so that every thing can 

 be done at the proper time, every thing put to its proper 

 use, every thing put in its proper place, and every thing kept 

 thoroughly clean. Churns of all kinds and sizes, and also cheese 

 presses, are manufactured in almost every village ; and at most 

 of the larger butter-making dairies the churns are attached to 

 and worked from the thrashing-mill, or otherwise by machinery. 

 We have heard of one or two dairies in the Cumnock district 

 taking butter from the whey, but that sort of thing is hardly 

 known in Ayrshire. It pays better, with less trouble, to give 

 the whey to the swine as it comes off the curd. Readers of 

 newspapers frequently see butter advertised under the name of 

 " stubble butter," and as of extra good quality ; but the butter 

 made after harvest is not indebted for its goodness to any 

 little picking the cows get amongst the stubbles, but some 

 what to the cabbage house-feeding at that time, and chiefly 



