DAIRY STOCK. 831 



variety, and of a quality certainly equal to any imported to this 

 country save the Jerseys, and perhaps the Devons. 



We believe that it is universally admitted that the county of 

 Ayr and its vicinity, in Scotland, is the home of this breed. 

 Whether they have been brought to their present perfection by 

 judicious selections from the ancient race, or by crosses with 

 other races that had properties they wished to ingraft into their 

 own, is left to conjecture. 



That the stock of that locality were originally poor milkers, 

 mostly of black color, with " line backs " and white faces, is pretty 

 certain. That the color now is almost invariably a dark red, 

 chestnut or brown, interspersed more or less with white, and 

 frequently with dark spots dotting the white surface, and instead 

 of white being as formerly located uniformly over a herd, it is 

 rare to find two speckled alike,* showing, as the committee 

 think, that crosses, rather than improvements incident to high 

 culture, have effected this striking change in color, and have had 

 an influence in increasing their size, and it has attained one 

 now as large as the generality of New England farms will per- 

 petuate. If this is so, for dairy stock, they are large enough ; 

 for we are confident that any stock will be more productive 

 when so kept that their properties shall be fully developed, than 

 when stunted or suffered to degenerate. 



That the good milking properties of this breed are more uni- 

 form and certain than any other imported stock, save the Jer- 

 seys, we fully believe. And, notwithstanding the admitted 

 productiveness of the Jersey cow, when every attention is paid 

 to her wants, it may be doubted whether, for farm and dairy 

 purposes, she should be preferred to the Aryshire. 



I have appended the following note, because coming, as I 

 think it does, from one whose preferences are in favor of the 

 Durhams, it is a valuable commendation to the Ayrshire cow.f 



* The foregoing remarks as to color are more particularly applicable to those 

 imported by Mr. Randall, of this State, and Mr. Prentiss, of Albany, than to 

 those imported by Mr. Gushing, of Watertown, and Mr. Brodie, of New York. 

 These last had more white, but the white ground was dotted thick with red 

 spots. 



f In the Library of Useful Knowledge, a standard work published in Lon- 

 don, in 1834, the writer says : " As mere milkers, they, (the Ayrshires,) cannot 

 compare with the long-established dairy cow, the short-horn. They yield ae 



