116 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



other constituents that exist in milk at all, but because the 

 cream separates less readily from the milk, and the skim- 

 milk of the Ayrshire, when you have taken off the 'cream, 

 shows by its opacity that there is a large amount of nutritive 

 matter remaining in it. It is opaque, it is white ; it is never 

 blue, semi-transparent, like the milk of the Jersey. That is 

 admitted by the breeders of these classes of animals. And 

 he gives credit to the Devon as perhaps the animal that might 

 most perfectly answer that demand. I agree with him that 

 there is no class of cows in the world that gives milk for fam- 

 ily purposes, for all the wants required in a family, equal to 

 that given by the Devon. We have it rich in cream, rich in 

 caseine, and in all the elements of milk ; but the amount of 

 milk furnished by the Devons is in many families so little sat- 

 isfactory to the producers that they are not in credit among 

 farmers at present. There have been families of Devons that 

 have been remarkable milkers ; but they have been bred with 

 the idea of furnishing good working cattle until this milk-pro- 

 ducing habit has been somewhat left in the shade ; while the 

 Ayrshire has been bred, and bred successfully, with this very 

 object in view, and for long generations ; and the idea that our 

 farmers, at this day, are going to get from the native stock 

 and the grade stock, and compounding those animals, a good 

 and uniform breed, that shall be equal to the chance examples 

 that we have among them, I consider perfectly idle. It would 

 require time longer than any of us have been upon the earth 

 to begin to make any great progress in that direction. 



It is well known that any two races will be prolific with 

 each other, but a third, or new race, cannot be formed from 

 two old ones, or two already in existence. This has been 

 tried repeatedly, and never yet succeeded; the progeny will 

 revert to one or both the original types or races. All that 

 can be done in the shape of improvement is to develop apti- 

 tudes, and have these become so well developed in a series of 

 generations that they will belong to and become hereditary as 

 transmissible qualities. The hereditary transmission of form 

 is one thing, and belongs to race, and the transmission of 

 qualities is quite another thing, and belongs to intelligent 

 breeding and care. 



The difficulties ought not to discourage us from constant 



