196 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



As to the annual returns of Ayrsliire cows in dairy produce, Professor Low 

 says : " Healthy cows in good pastures give 800 to 900 gallons of milk in a 

 year." Aiton says " GOO gallons a year may be deemed about an average of 

 this breed." And the author of " British Husbandry" says, in reference to this 

 yield : "If equalled, we believe it will not be found excelled by any other breed 

 in the kingdom." Martin says : " The milk of a good Ayrshire cow will afford 

 250 pounds of butter, or 500 pounds of cheese annually." Milburn's estimate 

 is, that cows of this breed will give from 600 to 800 gallons of milk in the 

 course of the year, and as much as 260 pounds of butter. Haxton cites many 

 statistics, from which it appears that in one dairy of thirty cows the average 

 annual yield of milk was 662 gallons ; that 9^ quarts afforded a pound of but- 

 ter, amounting to an aggregate of 274 pounds in a year. He adds : •" From 

 these data, it appears that the milk of the Ayrshire breed of cows is not only 

 abundant in quantity, but also rich in those substances which constitute excel- 

 lence of quality, and when with these qualities is considered the small amount of 

 food consumed, the result is so favorable to this breed that few thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with the subject will refuse to rank the Ayrshire cow among the most 

 valuable for dairy purposes in the United Kingdom." 



In the competition at Ayr in 1861, for a prize offered by the Duke of Athol, 

 the average weight of milk per day, for two days, from six cows, was about 50 

 pounds, the cows being milked twice a day. The cow which took the first 

 prize gave an average of 57 pounds per day. On this occasion, the Duke of 

 Athol stated that the cow (then in his posession) which received the first prize 

 of the previous year had given an average of upwards of twelve quarts of milk 

 per dayfor a year, actual measurement having shown a product of 1,110J gal- 

 lons in something less than twelve months. Comparatively few accurate trials 

 have been made with specimens of the breed in this country. One of four im- 

 ported Ayrshire cows, owned several years since by the late J. P. Gushing, of 

 Watertown, now Belmont, Massachusetts, gave in one year 3,864 quarts of 

 milk, beer measure. One of the cows, imported by the Massachusetts Society 

 for Promoting Agriculture, in 1837, while kept by the late E. Phinney, esq., of 

 Lexington, Massachusetts, was said to have afforded sixteen pounds of butter 

 per week, for several weeks in succession. The imported cow, Jean Armour, 

 owned by H. H. Peters, of Southboro', Massachusetts, in 1862, gave an average 

 of 49 pounds of milk a day for 114 days, commencing June 1st; and for the 

 month of July her average was 51 pomids 13 ounces per day. Her milk for 

 three days in July yielded six pounds of butter. Her live weight at the close 

 of the trial was 967 pounds. 



It will be understood, from what has already been said, that the dairy is the 

 leading object with the breeders of Ayrshire cattle. At the same time the im- 

 portant fact has not been overlooked, that to breed and perjjetuate a profitable 

 dairy stock regard must be had to hardiness and strength of constitution, and 

 also to such fattening tendencies as will insure a profitable return from calves, 

 fattened for veal, from steers, reared for beef, and from cows, which, having 

 served their turn in the dairy, are at last dried of their milk and prepared for 

 the shambles. 



The importance of these properties is not sufficiently regarded by keepers 

 of dairy stock in this country. Even if milk were the sole object, it would be 

 impossible to preserve a breed possessing superior qualities in this respect, 

 without giving attention to those points of form which denote ■ strength of con- 

 stitution. It has been well observed by Magne that " iu the breeding of dairy 

 stock we should make choice only of animals possessing the tico-fold charao- 

 tcr of general vigor and activity of the mammary system." 



These principles have been followed to a considerable extent by the leading 

 breeders of Ayrshires in Scotland. Hence they claim a high rank for the 

 breed in reference to general usefulness, Aiton, in speaking of what the 



