CATTLE HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF BREEDS. 761 



full, and level. The thigh well-fleshed, and full, the lower 

 part somewhat thin, and gracefully tapering to the hock, the leg 

 below small, flat, and sinewy. The twist (the space between 

 the thighs) well let down, and open. The tail taper, like a 

 drum-stick, and terminating with a bush of white hair. The 

 color invariably a cherry-red, sometimes showing a lighter or 

 deeper shade, and the skin under the hair a rich cream color. 

 The bull will show the stronger and masculine character of his 

 sex; the steer will develop the finer points, and the cow, all 

 the delicacy and refinement belonging to her race. In the 

 roundness and fullness which accompany the proper develop- 

 ment of the points named, the silky, wavy laying of the hair, 

 and the elastic touch of the flesh, as the finger is pressed upon 

 it, every beholder will at once see a most blood-like and grace- 

 ful animal. " 



The Ayrshires. The origin of this breed of cattle is 

 even at the present day a matter of dispute. It is certain that 

 as late as the middle of the eighteenth century there was no 

 such breed in Cunningham or Ayrshire the localities more re- 

 cently famous for them or even in Scotland. As late as 1783 

 Mr. Aiton described the cattle of Ayrshire as follows : " The 

 cows kept in the districts of Kyle and Cunningham were of a 

 diminutive size, ill fed, ill shaped, and yielded but a scanty re- 

 turn in milk. They were mostly black, with large stripes of 

 white along the chine or ridge of the back, about their flanks, 

 and on their faces. Their horns were high and crooked, having 

 deep ringlets at the roots; a sure sign that the cattle were but 

 scantily fed. The chine of their backs stood up high ;m<l nar- 

 row ; their sides were lank, short and thin; their hides thick. ad- 

 hering to their bones ; their hair was coarse and open, and 

 few of them yielded more than six or eight quarts of milk a 

 day when in their best plight, or weighed when fat more than 

 three hundred to four hundred pounds, net." 



The modern Ayrshire which was obtained from this same 

 locality bears no resemblance to the cattle above described. 

 The cattle of Ayrshire are no longer the meager, unshapely, 

 unprofitable animals described by Aiton, but almost double the 



