264 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



She is a rapid feeder, aud soou getting her till, she goes to chewing 

 her cud, which she is nearly always doing in a rapid manner — either 

 lying down, standing or walking, and I have often seen them when 

 started into a run, keep on chewing as they ran. If there is any 

 food in the pasture, the Ayrshire will liud it. 



She is a very uniform and persistent milker, drying off slowly and 

 milking up to calving, if desired. She is quiet and pleasant in her 

 disposition, if kindly treated, or if let alone, but will resent abuse. 

 She is intelligent, quick to learn aud of a retentive memor}'. Can 

 be easily taught to take the same place in the stable, and will al- 

 ways go to that place until removed to another. 



She is not easily disturbed at milking time, pays no attention to 

 noise in the stable, and gives her milk as readily to one milker as 

 to another. She is a very economical producer of milk, giving a 

 large amount of milk of good quality for the food consumed. Offi- 

 cial tests have shown her to produce 4 per cent, milk at less than 

 two cents per quart average. 



The place where an Ayrshire cow particularly excels is in pro- 

 ducing milk for the retail trade in towns and cities. It is produced 

 at a small cost, if of good (juality for inspection, has a good body to 

 it, and never looks blue; has good keeping quality and will bear 

 transportation without churning or souring; will, after standing 

 over night, easily remix the cream into the milk, and when once re- 

 mixed will not readily rise again. 



The milk is particularly adapted for table use and for invalids and 

 children, being attractive looking and evenly balanced in cream aud 

 butter-fat, making it a complete food, and easily digested. Another 

 quality of Ayrshire milk is the quality of the curd, which, instead 

 of being leathery and tough, is easily crumbled to pieces, rendering 

 it more easily digested. 



Peofjle with weak digestive organs, and young children, thrive 

 on it and are uniformly free from stomach and intestinal troubles. 

 While the Ayrshire seems by nature to be particularly adapted to 

 the production of milk to be used on the table and in its original 

 form, still she is no mean butter cow, but as her cream rises slowly, 

 it will be found advisable to use a separator to extract the cream, 

 and when extracted there is no noticeable difference in the churn- 

 ability of Aryshire cream from that of any other breed. An average 

 Ayrshire cow will give, on fair keep, from 6,000 to 7,000 lbs. of milk, 

 which will make from 250 to 300 lbs. of butter. Selected breeds, 

 however, will do much better, giving from 7,000 to 8,000 lbs. of milk, 

 and from 300 to 400 lbs. of butter. 



We have many well authenticated and official records of single 

 cows giving from 10,000 to 12,000 lbs. of milk, and from 400 to 600 



