50 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



the island, the principal food of these cows being the grasses that the moist climate affords 

 nearly the entire year, the records of butter production there, give an average of one pound 

 per day for the whole year, while the choicest cows have been known to double that amount. 

 In several experiments made in this country, a pound of butter has been made from between 

 seven and eight quarts of milk, and it is stated by good authority that in the Farmington 

 (Connecticut) creamery, the milk of twenty Guernsey cows colored the butter from 500 cows. 

 This breed readily transmits its valuable characteristics, and grades of about three-fourths 

 blood are frequently found to fully equal the pure bred animals in milk production. 



As a beef breed, the Guernsey cannot be highly recommended, beef qualities being 

 secondary to dairy characteristics. They will, however, fatten quite well when dry, and 

 make very good beef. A recent writer says in this connection: 



&quot; There are cows that will fatten well when dry, and the Guernsey will be found among 

 them, but it is so secondary a consideration that it is not entitled to the weight usually given 

 it. Few men buy a heavy stove that will consume much and heat but little from a desire to 

 have it sell for old iron after many years, but many will carry a poor butter cow many 

 winters and then feed her twenty-five dollars worth of mill-feed to sell her for old cow beef 

 at thirty dollars. It is too late for this economy, when the great natural grazing plains are 

 sending in superb beef cattle that have cost only herding,&quot; and dairy farmers should find it 

 out. A good butter cow, one that converts her food into not only a large amount of butter, 

 but into high-priced golden butter, should pay every year her full lee f value over and above the 

 product of the average &quot; universal cow,&quot; and a good milch cow, such as a Holstein, should 

 equally exceed the common cow in her profitable performance.&quot; 



AYRSHIRES. 



THIS breed originated in the county of Ayr, in the southwestern part of Scotland, and 

 has long been celebrated in Great Britain and this country for its excellent milking 

 qualities. Its origin is supposed to be due mainly to the crossing of the Fmglish 

 Short-Horn bull with the common Kyloe cow of Scotland, the progeny being improved with 

 reference to their milking qualities, until this characteristic became established and trans 

 missible. Other breeds were doubtless used in improving these cattle, thus Rawlin says, in 

 writing of the Ayrshire: &quot;They have another breed called the Dunlop cow, .which are 

 allowed to be the best race for yielding milk in Great Britain or Ireland, not only for large 

 quantities, but also for richness in quality. It is said to be a mixture by bulls brought from 

 the Island of Alderney with their own, or the old race of cows.&quot; Martin also states, &quot;At 

 some period or other, there has evidently been a cross with the Durham or Holderness, and 

 perhaps also with the Alderney breed.&quot; Professor Low, in his illustrations of British 

 quadrupeds, says: &quot; From the evidence of which, in the absence of authentic documents, 

 the case admits, the dairy breed of Ayrshire cows owes the characteristics which 

 distinguish it from the older race, to a mixture of the blood of the races of the continent, and 

 of the dairy breed of Alderney.&quot; 



Careful selection in breeding, and the better system of management that was generally 

 adopted soon after the early attempts towards improvement, doubtless had great influence in 

 changing the general character of the stock of that region, as would be the case with any 

 breed. The original stock which forms the basis of the Ayrshire breed are described by 

 Aiton as of diminutive size, ill-fed, ill-formed, and yielding but a scanty supply of milk. They 

 were mostly black in color, with large stripes of white along the chine and ridge of the back, 



