No. 9. 



The Ayrshire Cow. 



281 



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THE AYRSHIRE COW, 



The above is an excellent likeness of the Ayrshire Dairy Cow. Its very great dissimi- 

 larity to the beautiful animal whose portrait is given at p. 193 of the Cabinet for January, 

 will account for much of the "conflicting testimony" which exists with regard to the origin 

 of the breed, as well as their milking properties: and tlius the opinion of John Lawrance, 

 that "they were a produce from a cross between the Alderney and the Scotch cattle," and 

 Youatt's declaration, that " any one would be convinced from a single glance that this sup- 

 position is altogether groundless," are easily reconciled. The fact is, the present improved 

 and fashionable race of Ayrshire cattle are, comparatively, of late origin, and their com- 

 pact and symmetrical form has arisen, no doubt, from a cross with the short-horn or Holder- 

 ness breed — it is to be feared, at the expense of their deep milking properties; while the 

 breed of which our present engraving gives a most striking and faithful delineation, is any 

 thin^ but what is said in the account given at p. 193 — " an animal witli hind quarters large, 

 back straight and broad behind, carcass deep, and pelvis capacious, wide over the hips, with 

 round buttocks ; all parts of least value small, and the general figure compact and well 

 proportioned;" comporting, rather, with those descriptions which, although they are given 

 by persons confessedly well acquainted with the breed, are as opposite as flesh and bone 

 can well be. Mr. Aiton says, "the Ayrshire cattle, 50 years ago, were of a diminutive 

 size, ill fed and ill shaped; the chine of the back high and narrow; sides lank, short and 

 thin:" and Rawlins describes them faithfully when he says, " they have another hxee^ 

 which are allowed to be the best race for yielding milk in Great Britain and Ireland, not 

 only for large quantities, but also for richness of quality, and are said to have been pro- 

 duced by a cross with the Alderney bull and their own cows ; they are much leaner and 

 thinner than any other Scotch breed ; are not deemed a handsome race, but the contrary ; 

 "jielding, however, more milk daily than any other breed ;" while it is added, they are deep 

 m the carcass, but not round and ample, and especially not so in the loins and haunches ; it 

 being suspected that an improvement in their shape, and an attempt to produce fat and 

 sleeky cattle, has been effected at the certainty of diminishing their value as milkers. 



It is, then, from the peculiar breed which we are now delineating, that such very great 

 quantities of milk and butter have been drawn; Mr. Rankin declaring that he has seen 36 

 quarts of milk taken in one day, while he possessed a three years old cow, which, for six 

 weeks after calving, gave 28 quarts a day: Mr. Aiton also calculated upon an average of 

 5 lbs. of butter per week the whole year round, or 514 lbs. of sweet milk cheese per an- 

 num, besides the whey and calf; adding, " To sum up all, hundreds and thousands of the 

 best Scotch cows, when in their best condition, will yield at the rate of 1000 gallons of 

 milk a year, 3^ or 4 gallons of which will yield a pound and a half of butter;" and Mr. 

 Ralston says, every cow in his dairy, about 120 in number, yields him her own weight of 

 the best cheese, and for which he obtains the value of the cow annually. 



The portrait, from whence our engraving has been made, was brought by Edw. Harris, 

 Esq., of Morestown, N. J., from Scotland, where he saw whole dairies of this peculiar breed 

 of cattle. 



