14 AITON'S RECOLLECTIONS. 



neither was there any fixed standard by which they 

 could be judged. " 



Aiton wrote in 1815, and even then the Ayrshire cat- 

 tle had been completely changed from what they were 

 in 1770, and had, to a considerable extent, at least, set- 

 tled clown into a breed with fixed characteristics, distin- 

 guished especially for an abundant flow and a rich qual- 

 ity of milk. A large part of the improvement then 

 manifested was due to better feeding and care, but 

 much, no doubt, to judicious crossing. Strange as it 

 may seem, considering the modern origin of this breed, 

 " all that is certainly known is that a century ago there 

 was no such breed as Cunningham or Ayrshire in Scot- 

 land. Did the Ayrshire cattle arise entirely from a 

 careful selection of the best native breed ? If they did, 

 it is a circumstance unparalleled in the history of agri- 

 culture. The native breed may be ameliorated by care- 

 ful selection ; its value may be incalculably increased ; 

 some good qualities, some of its best qualities, may be 

 for the first time developed ; but yet there will be some 

 resemblance to the original stock, and the more we 

 examine the animal the more clearly we can trace out 

 the characteristic points of the ancestor, although every 

 one of them is improved." 



Aiton remembered well the time when some short- 

 horn or Dutch cattle, as they were then called, were 

 procured by some gentlemen in Scotland, and particu- 

 larly by one John Dunlop, of Cunningham, who brought 

 some Dutch cows — doubtless short-horns — to his 

 byres soon after the year 1760. As they were then 

 provided with the best of pasture, and the dairy was 

 the chief object of the neighborhood, these cattle soon 

 excited attention, and the small farmers began to raise 

 up crosses from them. This was in Cunningham, one 

 of the districts of Ayrshire, and Mr. Dunlop's were. 



