THE AYRSHIRE 



293 



specimens of Ayrshires in the test were fine examples of the 

 breed, which did not obtain with some of the other breeds. The 

 best Ayrshire in the test, Betsy ist, produced 7041.5 pounds 

 milk, which tested 3.59 per cent fat and yielded in estimated 

 butter 298.57 pounds. She was eighth in rank among the fifty 

 cows, giving a net profit of $46.07, compared with the Guernsey, 

 Mary Marshall, first, with a net profit of $59.40. In comparisons 

 made at various experiment stations and at fairs the Ayrshire has 

 usually stood second to the Holstein-Friesian in milk production, 

 but below this in butter fat. 



Ayrshire milk for cheese making has long been a standard for 

 making Cheddar cheese in Scotland, where it is made on a large 

 scale in the Ayrshire district. Containing as it does about the 



FIG. 132. In the Ayrshire ring at the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland Show, at Glasgow, 1897. Photograph by the author 



standard amount of fat and solids for cheese making, this milk is 

 regarded with favor for this purpose. In cheese tests at the 

 Ontario Experimental Farm 100 pounds of Ayrshire milk pro- 

 duced 12.9 pounds of curd, compared with an average of 12.8 for 

 all breeds and grades. Professor Robert Wallace, the well-known 

 Scotch authority, states that the Ayrshire is essentially a cheese 

 dairy cow on account of the comparatively small-sized butter-fat 

 globules of the milk and the abundance of the curd-making 

 material it contains. 



The Ayrshire as a producer of beef ranks among the first of the 

 dairy breeds. It is natural for animals of this breed to carry 

 somewhat more flesh than the more refined dairy type. Ayrshire 

 steers feed to make a very salable carcass, with a killing quality 



