186 STOCK IMPORTED BY 



verting her food to milk, which ought, in the estimation of the 

 judicious farmer, to constitute her relative value. 



It was with a view of introducing among our farmers a dairy- 

 stock that should, with proper care and management, remune- 

 rate, and more than remunerate, the expense of keeping, that 

 the trustees were induced to appropriate so considerable a sum 

 to this object. 



What they have now done forms but a nucleus or starting 

 point, from which, with the aid and countenance of a liberal pub- 

 lic, they hope, in due time, to diffuse among the farmers of Mas- 

 sachusetts, not only an improved race of animals, but also an 

 ambition to excel in every thing that relates to this important 

 branch of rural economy. 



The breeds of cattle, which the trustees believed, under all the 

 circumstances, to be best adapted to this country, best calculated 

 to promote the object they had in view, and to subserve the 

 wishes and wants of the farmer, were the Ayrshire and North 

 Devon. 



The Ayrshire cows have been, for nearly or quite a century, 

 distinguished as deep milkers, and, at the same time, are known 

 to be a hardy, mild-tempered, and docile race, easily kept, with 

 a disposition to fatten when not in milk, and having a capacity 

 of converting their food to milk beyond that possessed by any 

 other breed of cows in Great Britain. 



The venerable Aiton, who may be justly styled the pioneer 

 and champion of improved husbandry in Scotland, and partic- 

 ularly of that branch which relates to dairy stock, says ; " The 

 Ayrshires are the most improved breed of cattle to be found in 

 the island, not only for the dairy, in which they have no par- 

 allel, under similar circumstances, but also in feeding for the 

 shambles. They are, in fact, a breed of cows that have, by ju- 

 dicious selection, cross coupling, feeding and treatment, for a 

 long series of years, been brought to a state of perfection, which 

 fits them above all others yet known to answer in almost every 

 diversity of situation where grain and grass can be raised to 

 feed them, for the purposes of the dairy, or for fattening them 

 for beef." 



In the dairy establishment of Mr. Harley, at Glasgow, con- 



