CROSSES 199 



and so drj crosses with the Shorthorn bull even at an earlier 

 age, and produce excellent beef; but Ayrshire steers are not 

 often met with, as the bull calves are usually sold for a few 

 shillings as " slinks " (newly born calves), and killed when a 

 day or two old. Many are never allowed to drink milk, but 

 are killed immediately after birth, and sent for consumption 

 into the large centres of population. Two-year-olds, steers, 

 and queys are hardy, and will winter well at little cost in a 

 sheltered place in the open air if provided with 2 or 3 Ibs. 

 each of undecorticated cotton-cake per. day, and a handful of 

 hay when snow covers the ground or during a prolonged 

 period of hard frost. An equivalent in food values of dried 

 brewer's grains is a satisfactory substitute when hay is not 

 available. 



The cross-bred Ayrshire-Galloway is very hardy, but a 

 slower maturity animal than the Ayrshire-Shorthorn cross. 

 It is in greater favour both as a milking and as a grazing 

 animal, now that young cattle are better attended to and not 

 left so much to their own resources as in olden time. A 

 check to crossing is the fact that giving birth to the larger 

 calf by a Shorthorn bull is liable to break down an Ayrshire 

 dairy cow prematurely, and prevent her yielding her normal 

 flow of milk. The Ayrshire-Polled-Angus cross, although 

 not subject to the same objection, is not a general success. It 

 requires more milk than the pure Ayrshire calf, more than a 

 dairy farm can spare ; and most strains of Angus cattle do 

 not nick well with thin-fleshed kine like the Ayrshire. 



American and Canadian settlers from this country took 

 Ayrshire cattle with them, and others imported them, to 

 ultimately form the foundation stock of dairy cattle in many 

 centres of the other side of the Atlantic. In Canada the 

 Ayrshire Importers and Breeders Association was formed in 

 1885 ; and a similar older Association in the United States 

 attends to the maintenance of the standard of excellence and 

 purity of the breed by pedigree registration and other means. 

 But in Argentina Ayrshires find little or no favour in 

 competition with Shorthorns. They are too thinly built, 

 like the native cattle of the River Plate. The chief dairy 

 cattle of our Australasian possessions are the Shorthorns, the 

 Ayrshires, and their crosses formed by the alternate use of 

 pure bulls of the two breeds on the common milking cows. 



