744 CrCLOfEDlA of live stock and complete troCK DOCTOR. 



remarkable hardihood, and quickly responds to full feed and good care. 

 The harsh handler is a dull feeder, consumes much food, and generally 

 contains more than a just proportion of offal or waste. In the Ayrshire 

 cow we desire neither of these extremes, for it is in the milk product 

 that we wish the food to l)e utilized, and it is almost an unchanging law 

 of nature, that deticiericy in one direction must be compensated for by 

 excess in another direction, and vice versa. At any rate, the cow that 

 lays on fat too quickly is seldom a first class milker ; and how well known 

 is it that the cow of large yield milks down her condition. A cow that 

 has a moderately thin, loose skin, of sufficient elasticity and suppleness of 

 touch, without being fat-cushioned, as it were, with hair soft and mossy 

 or woolly, if of correct form otherwise, will usually milk a large quantity^ 

 and when she becomes drj', will rapidly come into condition. In truth, 

 the handling of the Ayershire cow must be good ; it cannot be too good r 

 but it must not be of exactly that quality sought for in the grazing breeds. 

 There, as everywhere, the dairyman must keep to his line ; milk, not 

 fat, is his profit ; and in seeking excess of both, he will be liable to fall 

 below the average of either. 



XV. Milk Points. 



It is an axiom of breeders to diminish the useless parts of an animal 

 as much as possible, or, in other words, to reduce the proportion of those 

 parts not conducive to profit to as great extent as possible. Applying 

 this rule to a dairy breed, w^e should desire a small neck, sharp shoulders, 

 sma'l brisket and small bone. Moreover, small bone usually accompa- 

 nies thrift, and is universally found in improved breeds. We thus have a 

 reason for these other Ayrshire points : 



Shoulders lying snugly to the ])ody, thin at their tops, small at their 



points, not long in the blade, nor loaded with muscle ; brisket light ; 



neck of medium length, clean in the throat, very light throughout, and 



tapering to the head ; tail long and slender ; legs short, bones fine, 



joints firm. 



XVI. The Head. 



The head should be small, in shape either long and narrow, or broad 

 in the forehead and short, according to the type of animal preferred by 

 the breeder, generally preferred somewhat dishing ; the nose tapering to 

 an expanded nmzzle, with good clean nostrils. Opinions differ as to the 

 general shape ot the head. A broad forehead and short face occurs 

 more frequently in bulls, and are generally esteemed a masculine charac- 

 teristic ; a more elongated face is called feminine. Yet some families of 

 well-bred and good milking Ayrshire cows have the broad and short 

 head, and such were, at one time, if not now, the favorites in the show- 

 vard Id Scotland. 



