178 AUSTRALIAN AGKlCUL'i UKE. 



Shorthorns. Really excellent milkers are got at times 

 from the Shorthorns or Durhams; but their progeny are 

 not reliable as milk-givers. Properly speaking, Jerseys, 

 Ayrshires, as well as Durhams, are really Shorthorns, but 

 the milking strain of the Durham or old Teeswater cattle 

 are generally called " Shorthorns." Good milking qualities 

 have a near connection with the feed, provided the cows 

 are of a milking strain if not the more and better fed the 

 greater quantity of flesh they put on. This is the case 

 with the white-faced Hereford^, which should be avoided 

 for dairy purposes. There arc only few herds of the 

 original milking strain of Shorthorns even in England. 



Ayrshires. This strain is a masterpiece of science-in- 

 practice in cattle-breeding. The Ayrshire is the dairy 

 cow of to-day as she was fifty years since recognised in the 

 old world and the new. She is the product of skilful 

 Scottish farming ; improved in the face of immense 

 difficulties which meet dairying in poor country with very 

 changeable climate. But to continue to be the milker she is, 

 the Ayrshire must be well kept. She is a giant to milk 

 when the food is given her. She is not the cow for star- 

 vation and neglect ; of this, those who are desirous of seeing 

 the Ayrshire take the place in Australia to which she 

 is entitled, may rest assured. In olden times, the native 

 country of this breed was a poor place for dairying. Burns, 

 in his quaint way, tells us of the hardships of those 

 Ayrshire farmers. The climate cold and raw ; the soil wet,, 

 stiff, and unproductive. The dry granite or volcanic 

 hillsides were the only exceptions to the general bleakness 

 of the country. There the .spring grasses were early and 

 comparatively rich, and as cattle, half-starved during 

 winter, began to make a little flesh, the natives saw that, 

 if the feed could be maintained, profitable dairying was- 

 within their reach. They were an observant people, those 

 early Ayrshire dairyists, and some of them located on the 

 hilly pastures came to see that by getting their cows on 

 the best grass, and when the grass failed, providing for 

 them barley, turnips, and the few other things they could 

 grow, the cows gave milk of richer quality and greater 

 quantity ; and that it was better, more business-like, and 



