CATTLE. 57 



Ayrshire cow Tilly, five years old. Dropped last calf April 13th. Her yield for May 

 was 1,071 pounds (first week of May, 161 pounds); her yield for June was 1,062 pounds; for 

 July 840 pounds (first week of July, 219 pounds); for August 724 pounds. Under date of 

 June 12th, I take the following record from the books: Tilly is fed on cut grass and one 

 quart of oil-meal. At no time has she been fed as high as the other cows. At no time more 

 than seven quarts of shorts, with long hay and one quart of either corn or oil-meal. In 

 July, no grain; in August, one quart corn-meal daily. 



This is only a portion of the systematic record of the dairy. No efforts have been made 

 for an extraordinary yield. Excellent calves. On one trial, Jersey gave 15 per cent, cream; 

 Tilly (Ayrshire) gave 9 percent.; average natives, 7^ per cent. 



Fannie, seven years of age. Calved Dec. 25th. Yielded in January 1,090 pounds 

 (first week of January, 273 pounds); in February, 874 pounds; in March, 822 pounds (first 

 week of March, 190^- pounds);, in April, 714 pounds; in May, 683 pounds; in June, G94 

 pounds; in July, 559^ pounds; in August, 450^ pounds. In June, July, and August fed on 

 green food. During winter and spring months, consumed, on a daily average, nine quarts 

 shorts, one quart linseed meal, and two quarts corn-meal, with corn stover and a poor quality 

 of hay. Excellent calves. On one trial, Jersey gave 15 per cent, cream; Fanny (Ayrshire) 

 gave 8i per cent.; average natives, 7-j per cent.&quot; 



The Waushakum herd of thirteen Ayrshires, of which a daily record of milk yield was 

 carefully kept for eight years, showed an annual average of 2,515 quarts per cow; while a 

 three years record of another herd of eleven cows of this breed gave an average annual milk 

 yield of 2,587 quarts each. Low says that healthy Ayrshire cows in good pastures give 

 from 800 to 900 gallons of milk each year. Martin makes the statement that the milk of a 

 good cow of this breed will afford 250 pounds of butter or 500 pounds of cheese annually. 



Haxton, after giving many statistics to demonstrate the value of the Ayrshire as a 

 dairy animal, mentions one which shows that in one dairy of thirty cows the average annual 

 yield of milk was 632 gallons each, and that nine and a quarter quarts produced a pound of 

 butter, amounting in the aggregate to 274 Ibs. in a year. 



Although rich in quality, the milk of the improved Ayrshire does not, in this respect, 

 equal that of the Jersey and Guernsey, which in many sections are gradually taking its 

 place; still, as a dairy animal, the former must ever occupy a high place, and be classed 

 among the superior milk breeds of the country. A cow that is of a quiet and contented 

 disposition feeds at ease, is milked with ease, and yields more than one of an opposite tem 

 perament; while after she is past her usefulness as a milker, she will easily take on fat and 

 make fine beef and a good quantity of tallow, because she feeds freely, and when dry, the 

 food which went to make milk is converted into fat and flesh. But there is no kind of cow 

 with which gentleness of treatment is so indispensable as with the Ayrshire, on account of 

 her naturally nervous temperament. If she receives other than kind and gentle treatment, 

 she will often resent it with angry looks and gestures, and withhold her milk; and if such 

 treatment is long-continued, will dry up; but she willingly and easily yields it to the hand that 

 fondles her, and all her looks and movements towards her friends are quiet and mild. For beef 

 production the Ayrshires are of course not equal to the Short-Horn and some other breeds, 

 having been bred solely for furnishing milk for so long a period. They however fatten 

 quite readily, and make very good beef. They are thought by some to unite to a greater 

 degree than any other breed the seemingly incompatible qualities of yielding a large amount 

 of milk, and producing good beef. 



