of German Landowners in 1841. 227 



for the original breed. Let us be glad that in breeding cattle we do 

 not make the mistake that Ave made in the attempt to improve our 

 horses, which advanced so slowly because we disliked to admit what 

 was good from England. 



*' Chairman. — rAs the Ayrshire breed has been five years in this 

 country, perhaps some one can communicate some accurate trial of their 

 milking qualities as compared with our breeds. 



" Captain Carr. — I think that, in order to get what is best, we must 

 throw all prejudice overboard. Those whom I see around me will 

 think it equally unwise to adopt everything English without inquiry, 

 and to reject what is good because it is foreign. It is a mistake, I must 

 say, to suppose that no accurate trials of this breed have been made. 

 They may be seen in Sir J. Sinclair's Code of Agriculture* and else- 

 where. But these trials are like those of threshing-machines. As you 

 feed the threshing-machine, and according to the quality of the wheat 

 to be threshed, so will be the yield of the machine. If the cow is half- 

 starved, she brings no profit. If she is of a good milking, and not of a 

 fatting breed, and is kept well from her birth, I think dairying will be 

 profitable. For our climate the large English breeds, Shorthorns and 

 Herefords, do not seem to be suitable. I have found the Ayrshires do 

 well here, but I am sure that those large English breeds could not have 

 withstood many dry seasons which I have seen in this country ; for 

 though they eat but little for their size, they would have died when our 

 grass failed altogether. 



" A Member. — For my part I think we have milch cattle of our own 

 which answer our purposes, and that they would stand in much higher 

 repute, and be more valuable, if we took more care in breeding and 

 rearing them. The yield of these foreign cows does not appear to me 

 very large ; and I assure you that I have cows of this country (well 

 reared, indeed, and well fed) from which I have had 23 or 24 potts of 

 milk in two milkings. 



" Baron Malzahn Sommerstorff. — In the year 1837 I went into Scot- 

 land on the part of an association in Pomerania, and bought 185 Ayr- 

 shire cows. It may interest you to know^ the results of trials which have 

 been made respecting them in their own country. There it has been 

 established that, with moderate keep in summer and winter, such as we 

 are able to give them, they give more milk and more butter than any 

 other breed. With abundance of good food one of these cows has been 

 known to give 30 quarts of milk a-day ; and 8 or 9 quarts of her milk 

 have yielded a pound of butter : none of our own breeds can do this. Ours 

 give only 12 or 13 quarts of milk. The best of them certainly produce 

 a pound of butter from 10 or 11 quarts of milk. I am far, however, 

 from rejecting our own breed altogether ; and I agree with the last 

 speaker, that any breed may be improved : but our breed wanted new 

 blood, for we had neglected it — and 1 thought we could not do better 

 than adopt the experience, now 200 years old, of a Scotch county. The 

 way too in which these cattle are reared should be recollected. The 

 calves are kept on Highland pastures until they are nearly two years 



* p. 120. 



