88 



waste, might lay by a surplus in the shape of fat or milk. Hence, 

 althou,^h there may be a large range, a sheep will fatten where a 

 cow will starve, and a small cow will keep in good order, and give 

 milk, where a large one can only hold her own, or perhaps grow 

 poor. 



Our cattle, as well as other domestic animals, have come mostly 

 from the British islands, and owing to the general superiority of 

 the stock of those islands, it is probable that we shall, in most 

 cases, resort there for whatever ncAv blood it may be thought 

 proper to introduce into this country. The British breeds which 

 are included in the milk-producing class, are the Ayrshire, the 

 Alderney or Jersey, the Yorkshire, the Leicestershire or Long- 

 horn, the Suffolk, and the Kerry. 



The Ayrshire Breed may be said to be of artificial origin. It 

 appears to have been first known as the Dunlop breed, from the 

 superior stock in the possession of General Dunlop, near Ayr, 

 seventy-five or eighty years ago. It is said that this gentleman 

 imported cattle from Holland, the blood of which was infused with 

 other breeds (one of which was probably the Alderney), thus 

 forming the foundation of the modern Ayrshire. There is evi- 

 dence that the Dunlop family were in possession of valuable dairy 

 stock as early as the period above alluded to. The poet Burns, 

 when he was farming at ElUsland, near Dumfries, in a letter writ- 

 ten in 1788, speaks of a heifer which had been presented to him 

 by the proprietor of Dunlop House, as " the finest quey in 

 Ayrshire." But there is little doubt that the present leading 

 type of the Ayrshire was derived in part from a cross with the 

 Kyloe or West Highland breed. This appeared, in the first 

 instance, probably, in what was called the Swinley variety. The 

 facts which I have obtained in Scotland in regard to it, are sub- 

 stantially as follows : Theophilus Parton of Swinley farm, near 

 Dairy, Ayrshire, about forty years ago, took great pains to select 

 a herd of what were deemed to be the heat Ayrshire cattle, into 

 Avhich he infused a strain of the West Highland blood, the particu- 

 lar degree of which is not generally known.* The Swinley stock 

 differs from the ordinary Ayrshire in having a shorter head, with 

 more breadth across the eyes, more upnght and spreading bonis, 

 more hair, and generally better constitutions. They are also 

 som.ewhat smaller boned than the old stock, though from their 

 superior symmetry they are equal to them in weight of carcass. 



The following points given by the Ayrshire Agricultural 

 Association, 1853, " as indicating superior quality," will give an 

 idea of the standard for Ayrshires, as recognised by the leading 

 breeders : 



* In my late visits to Scotlaiul, I learned that I\Ir. Parton was still living, 

 tlionL'li iVoni the infirmities of age, ui)\vards of eighty years, he does not 

 attend to business matters. 



