PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT SINCE 1805. 



THE Ayrshire cow of 1805, although possessing 

 some fineness of shape, and credited with a not un- 

 common yield of from 24 to 34 quarts of milk daily, 

 and exceptionally as giving as much as 40 quarts, 

 yet appears to have been deficient in width and 

 depth of carcass behind, and no mention is made 

 of the shape either possessed by, or desired in, the 

 udder. This breed, however, was very generally 

 diffused over Cunningham, 1 and very soon found its 

 way into other counties of Scotland. 2 



In 1811, as we judge from the description and 

 figure given by Aiton, 2 the shape of the carcass had 

 somewhat improved, and there seems to have been 

 gained a lightness forward. At the .same time our 

 attention is called to the shape of the udder, which 

 is described as broad and square, stretching forward, 

 neither low-hung nor loose. The same stress is laid 

 on the perfection of udder in the description given 

 by William Harley, in 1829, 3 and he had cows which 

 not unfrequently gave from 25 to 30 quarts a day, 

 and once even attained 40 quarts. 



The great breadth and depth of the loins appears 



1 Ro. Forsyth, Beauties of Scotland, ii, 439. 



3 Survey of Ayrshire, 426. Harleian Dairy System p. 106. 



