THE AYRSHIRE BREED OF CATTLE. 171 



feeding is practised, the average has run up to 680 and 700 

 gallons. On the majority of farms the average yield is 600 

 gallons. As a matter of personal experience, during the past 

 summer I have had two young Ayrshires, who dropped their 

 second calves the latter end of April, and gave the large yield of 

 five gallons each per day for upwards of two months. I need 

 scarcely say they had a liberal allowance of artificial food. 

 Alton goes on to say that, since the publication of his survey, 

 the farmers have satisfied him that he has underrated the pro- 

 duce of their cattle, and that they have furnished him with 

 satisfactory proofs of various cows having produced from six to 

 seven gallons per day for several weeks. These, he remarks, 

 are, no doubt, extraordinary returns. 



Then, as now, the farmers were in the habit of letting their 

 cows to dairymen at a fixed rent per head, the farmer furnishing 

 the dairy plant and the necessary food for the stock, the 

 dairyman performing the whole of the labour. At that time 

 the rents were from 151. to 17Z. 10s. per cow per annum; the 

 calculation then was that 30 gallons of milk produced 241b. of 

 marketable cheese, or 12|lb. of milk to each pound of cured 

 cheese. Descending to our own times, the following is the 

 result of a milking competition held at Ayr on the 26th and 

 27th days of April, 1861, viz. : 



E.Wallace 25 5 23 8i 1 15 



In this case, the greatest yield at a single milking was rather 

 over three gallons, which produced at the rate of 151b. of butter 

 per week. We have here no record of the quantity of milk 

 required to produce lib. of cheese. In the Derby cheese 

 factory, where the milk of three hundred and sixty cows was 

 manufactured into cheese during the year 1871, taking the 

 average of the season, ll|lb. of milk produced lib. of cured 

 cheese. 



