No. 63.] 263 



AYRSHIRE CATTLE. 



BY GEORGE RANDALL, NEW-BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS. 



I will now attempt to give you some account of my importation of 

 Ayrshires; but allow me first to state, that I have no pretensions as a 

 good judge of stock, or of science as a breeder. 1 have imported 

 from Scotland two bulls, not near connected by blood, to avoid that 

 miserable practice of in-and-in breeding; also four cows and one 

 young quey. Three of the cows were in calf when imported. One 

 had a calf prematurely, and died from inflammation on the lungs. 

 One cow died from eating a very small quantity of paint, and she left 

 me a heifer calf six weeks old, by my bull Rob Roy. My stock was 

 all bred by Mr. Lawrence Drew of Carmyle, near Glasgow. He has 

 been a very successful breeder, and has taken very many premiums. 

 My best bull, Rob Roy^ was six years old in May last; he was out of a 

 cow called Daisy. In June, 183S, Daisy took the eighth first premium 

 at the County Shows of Scotland, and in September, 1838, she took 

 the first premium of twenty guineas, at the Highland Society's Show 

 at Glasgow, (open to the United Kingdom,) and became outlawed, 

 viz: she could not be shown again for a premium. 



Rob Roy had the first premium awarded him at the show of four 

 counties, at Baileston, (Scotland,) in June, 1838, as the best bull in the 

 two years old class. In 1840 he had the first premium awarded him 

 at the Show of the Windham and Norwich Counties Society at 

 Norwich, Connecticut; and in 1841, the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Society gave him the first premium at Bridgewater. This society 

 gave premiums on blood stock only. 



This bull Rob Roy, is. strictly speaking, a dairy bull, and very high 

 bred; perfectly quiet; never had a ring in his nose, and a child four 

 years old can drive him, and do anything with him. He is much in- 

 clined to take on flesh; has been wintered on barley straw^ and one and a 

 half peck of ruta bagas per day; did not have one particle of hay, and 

 come out in the spring looking like a stall fed animal. He has not 

 had a particle of grain or meal since he came to the United States, 

 excepting two days when on the road to Connecticut, when he had 

 some oats. In a word, 1 will say, give him as much good English 

 hay as he will eat, and he will be too full fed. 



My cow Swinley was seven years old in May last; was in calf when 

 I imported her in 1839, by a high bred bull that took the first premi- 

 um at B:iileston, in June, 1839. The premium was a massive silver 

 medal elegantly wrought, and seven sovereigns. The calf from 

 Swinley was a quey, dropped March 20th, 1840. I call her Maggy, 

 She is very much like her mother, and bids fair to rival her as a 

 milker. She gave me a heifer calf on the 3d of April last, by my 

 second imported bull Roscoe, and for more than two months she gave 

 twelve quarts of milk per day. 



Swinley is a small cow, low in the leg, fine in all her points, high 

 bred, and is what I should call a large cow in a small C07npass, and 



