AYRSHIRE CATTLE. 287 



selection, cross coupling, feeding and treat- 

 ment, for a long series of years, been brought 

 to a state of perfection which fits them, above 

 all others yet known, to answer in almost 

 every diversity of situation where grain and 

 grass can be raised to feed them, for the pur- 

 poses of the dairy, or for fattening them for 

 beef.' 



In tlie dairy establishment of Mr. Harley, 

 at Glasgow, consisting of 150 cows, they were 

 principally of the Ayrshii-e breed, to which 

 he gave a decided preference over any other 

 breed. The average quantity of milk given 

 by the cows in liis establishment, for the year, 

 was eleven quarts per day from each." 



As to their " disposition to fatten ivhen not in milk,''^ that, we apprehend, is in 

 proportion to the predominance of the Short-Horn blood ; and whether the acces- 

 sion of that blood is not made at the expense of the milking property, will de- 

 pend upon whether it is derived from a milking or a beef family of that race. 

 Some of the Ayrshires we have seen — Mr. Davie's, and a cow we saw at Sara- 

 toga — wore the appearance of miniature Short-Horns ; and such is the character 

 of the portraits of Ayrshire cows as we sometimes see them represented. For 

 ourselves, if called on to make a selection, we should lean to the Alderney side 

 of the house, as it is exhibited in the Plate we give, and in the Ayrshires import- 

 ed by Dr. Hoffman. We have not seen the Massachusetts importation, but that 

 is no reason why we never should. 



Looking for the origin of this race, we have not in reach any more recent or 

 authentic account than we find in Low's splendid work on the Domestic Animals 

 of Europe — of which the only English copy we have seen is in possession of 

 Lewis Morris, Esq., near Fordham, Westchester County. Referring now to the 

 French translation before us, we find it there slated that authentic documents are 

 wanting to designate the progressive steps which have been followed, with the 

 milch cattle of Ayrshire, to bring them to their present conformation. CuUey, 

 who wrote his work on Cattle before 1790, makes no particular mention of Ayr- 

 shires. Aiton, who in 1825 published a treatise on the Dairy Husbandry of Ayr- 

 shire, describes their cattle, according to his own observations, as being a sorrv, 

 ill-formed race, without any superiority over those which then existed in some 

 of the mountainous districts. The cattle were then, as he informs us, generally 

 of black color, with white marks on the face, back and flanks. Few of the cows 

 gave more than from one-half to two gallons of milk a day, after calving ; and 

 weighed, when fatted, 20 stones — meaning, we presume, 14 pounds to the stone, 

 or 280 net. But, says Mr. Low, according to the French translator, since that 

 epoch the blood of the primitive Ayrshire has been mixed with other races. It 

 is, says he, established on competent authority that, in the middle of the last cen- 

 tury. Count Marchmont introduced, on his estates in Berwickshire, a bull and 

 many cows of the Teeswater, then known under the name of the Holland or Hol- 

 stein breed, which were supplied to him by the Bishop of Durham. Divers other 

 proprietors introduced foreign breeds of cattle, probably of the same race, on their 

 estates. One cannot say with certainty what was the influence exercised by 

 these accidental importations (we are re-translating Mr. Low) on the primitive 

 race of Ayrshires. Tradition even ascribes to an anterior importation of cows 

 of the Alderney race, in the parish of Durham, the first remarkable ameliora- 

 tions which occurred with the cows of Ayrshire and in the produce of their milk. 

 This opinion, says Low, in which we entirely agree, is justified by the resem- 

 blance which exists between the Alderney race and the modern Ayrshires ; and 

 which is so obvious that, even without the tradition, one would be led to believe 

 that the blood of the two races had been mingled. One remarks, in fact, in the 

 two races, the same kind of horns and the same color of the skin. In a word, 

 the general conformation presents such a striking analogy that we might often 

 (575; 



