UNITED KINGDOM. 137 



just now, or rather aged one year and six months, He won eight first 

 prizes last year, including the royal, and never saw meal or oil-cake till 

 January, 1884. His first show turn out this year will be 011 llth April 

 next. Milch cows in summer as a rule receive nothing for five months 

 but grass; but some very few give them a little beau meal at milking 

 time. In winter milch cows require warm feeding ; cut hay boiled with 

 turnips and bean meal is the most common. 



Breeding Ayr shires. The great aim of breeders has been to perfect the 

 race for dairy purposes, and that quite irrespective of size and substance 

 of body. We have been contriving through many years past to breed 

 milk vessels irrespective of bodies. What we want is a broad milk ves- 

 sel behind, well caught up to the body, with long reach onto the body 

 and level sole, with teats not over large, well and evenly set on milk 

 vessels, and having broad points. That is almost all which has been 

 looked at for a long time, and really breeders have suffered considerably. 

 Such animals have not as a rule commercial value. Many now see the 

 folly and are breeding large, substantial bodies irrespective of milk 

 vessel. 



One consideration has militated against breeders being so generally 

 successful in producing perfective milk vessels in the fact that the ani- 

 mals are not in milk till three years of age, till in fact they have proved 

 themselves, and then probably the bull is dead an animal which might 

 have been of incalculable service to the herd. Few keep their bulls, ex- 

 cept for show purposes, over two years. Above that age breeders con- 

 sider they are rather heavy for the cows and leave calves which are 

 sore on the cows. The bulk prefer stirks to any other age for their cows. 

 In my experience this is wrong. The bull leaves the impression, and 

 when one gets a good one keep to him. I had one five years old, and 

 as a three-year old he bulled 80 cows and 80 as a two-year old and more 

 as a five-year old, and no man living can say he ever left a bad one. 

 He was a true strain himself, and hence the results. His progeny have 

 been all the leading winners the last few years and will be this year 

 again. We must and will now aim at breeding more for size and sub- 

 stance of body. 



The Ayrshires as milker 8. We are not great statisticians, but the 

 dairy show in London proves that for quantity and quality of milk the 

 Ayrshire beats all breeds. Mr. Ferme, from his Ayrshire dairy in South 

 London, with animals bought in the district of Paisley, is now almost 

 annually the winner of the lord mayor's cup for the best dairy cow in 

 the show. That prize is tested by quantity and quality. I have an 

 average of a cow for two years in succession giving 11,100 pounds of 

 milk per year, and of 12 little cows in the five grass months of sum- 

 mer giving 480 pounds of milk per day. I should say that in a fairly 

 good dairy the average pounds of milk per year would be 10,000 pounds. 

 [ have tested cows in midsummer and found they gave 12 pounds per 

 week of butter, and a fair average for the year would be 400 pounds, 

 providing always that good grass in summer is given and good feeding 

 in winter. 



Near populous places many farmers sell their own milk and butter 

 from the cart. They realize per cow about 21 per annum ; and a bulk 

 of the fanners in the district of Paisley let their cows for the year on 

 lease. The party who takes them on a lease is called a "Bower," and 

 is supplied with grass for the cows in summer and food in winter. He 

 milks the cow, supplies his own utensils, horse and cart, and pays on an 

 average per annum per cow 18. As I have suggested, statistics are 

 scarce, and exact data as to the quantities of milk required to make a 



