22 BRITISH DAIRYING. 



cases, notably for beef, in the hands of that king of breeders, 

 Robert Bakewell, of Leicestershire. This great displacement 

 of one celebrated breed by another was chiefly brought about 

 by Shorthorn bulls, whose prepotency was such, when mated 

 with Longhorn cows, that the old Longhorn characteristics 

 have been wholly eliminated in little more than half a century. 

 The same sort of thing is in progress elsewhere, and at least 

 two of the three Welsh breeds are vanishing before the invading 

 and cosmopolitan Shorthorns, just as the Indians of America 

 are vanishing before the white man. In reference alike to the 

 Longhorns, the Pernbrokes, the Glamorgans, and the Indians 

 too, we see at work Darwin's " survival of the fittest " the 

 great natural law which regulates families, tribes, nations, and 

 species ; and which has produced the well-defined forms of 

 animal and vegetable life as we see them to-day. 



Ayrshires. 



It may well be doubted if, as purely dairy cattle, suitable for 

 cheese-making or the milk trade, there is a breed in the British 

 Islands that will surpass the Ayrshires. For producing a maxi- 

 mum quantity of milk from a minimum quantity of an inferior 

 quality of food, and for thriving in an uncongenial climate on 

 land that is only of moderate fertility, there are no cattle superior 

 to the Ayrshires; while for vigour and hardihood of constitution, 

 for energy and strength of will, and for industry and activity in 

 search of food where food is not too plentiful, the Ayrshire cow 

 has probably no equal. Many judges consider that the build 

 and outline of a first-rate specimen of the Ayrshire cattle is as 

 nearly as possible the ideal of what a dairy cow should be : that 

 is, she is light and narrow in her forequarters, but wide and 

 spacious behind. But the Ayrshire cow has certain faults. In 

 the first place, she is decidedly inferior to any other of the 

 Scotch breeds, or to any of the English breeds save the Jerseys 

 and Guernseys, as a beef-producing animal; in the second, she 

 has short and stumpy teats, which add to the difficulty of milk- 

 ing her ; and, lastly, she has an untiring pugnacity of disposition 

 \\hich is a frequent cause of injury to her fellows, so that it is 



