IMPROVEMENTS. FORM OF THE BULL. 17 



of easily regaining condition with the return of spring 

 and good feed. The pasture-land of the county is 

 devoted to dairy stock, chiefly for making butter 

 and cheese, a small part only being used for fattening 

 cows when too old to keep for the dairy. The breed 

 has undergone very marked improvements since Aiton 

 wrote, in 1815. The local demand for fresh dairy prod- 

 ucts has very naturally taxed the skill and judgment of 

 the farmers and dairy-men to the utmost, through a 

 long course of years ; and thus the remarkable milking 

 qualities of the Ayrshires have been developed to such a 

 degree that they may be said to produce a larger quan- 

 tity of rich milk and butter in proportion to the food 

 consumed, or the cost of production, than any other of 

 the pure-bred races. The owners of dairies in the 

 county of Ayr and the neighborhood were generally 

 small tenants, who took charge of their stock them- 

 selves, saving and breeding from the offspring of good 

 milkers, and drying off and feeding such as were found 

 to be unprofitable for milk, for the butcher ; and thus the 

 production of milk and butter has for many years been 

 the leading object with the owners of this breed, and 

 symmetry of form and perfection of points for any other 

 object have been very much disregarded, or, if regarded 

 at all, only from this one point of view the produc- 

 tion of the greatest quantity of rich milk. 



The manner in which this result has been brought 

 about may further be seen in a remark of Aiton, who 

 says that the Ayrshire farmers prefer their dairy bulls 

 according to the feminine aspect of their heads and 

 necks, and wish them not round behind, but broad at 

 the hook-bones and hips, and full in the flanks. This 

 was more than forty years ago, and under such circum- 

 stances, and with such care in the selection of bulls and 

 cows with reference to one specific object, it is not 

 2* 2 



