23 



ion of statements made by interested parties, and is about as in- 

 telligible to the average farmer as a Polish prayer book. 



To a disinterested observer there is a good deal that is positive- 

 ly funny in the popialar use and construction of the terms thor- 

 ough bred, pure blood, herd book, &c. "Within the last twenty 

 years, by crossing three or four very encouraging varieties, a 

 strain of fowls has been developed resembling each other in some 

 properties, but so far from having attained fixed characteristics 

 that only a small proportion of the chickens, even fi'om the 

 finest fowls, attain the qualities required in exhibition birds. 

 Still later, say within 5 or 6 years, a sub-variety has been pro- 

 duced, avowedly by selecting and breeding together sports from 

 the first named fowls. 



Both of these varieties, though possessing many excellent qual- 

 ities, are evidently the verest mongrels ; but both have been ad- 

 mitted to the standard, and I lately read an article in a Poultr}"^ 

 paper, severely denouncing certain strains of the youngest of 

 these two breeds (?) as 9non(/rels, because they had been too 

 plainly jDroduced by an out crop, instead of being inbred sports 

 of the original jumble. 



Something like this, in kind, is the present status of the 

 Ayrshires as a breed. The Ayrshires are the result of a cross of 

 Dutch or Shorthorn bulls on the native cattle of the district of 

 Ayr, commenced about a hundred and twenty years ago, and 

 continued to the present time, and accompanied with better feed 

 and increased attention to the general welfare of the stock. The 

 outcome was a sort of condensed Shoi'thorn, with a large capac- 

 ity for the production of milk suitable for cheese making ; and 

 in this respect many of the Ayrshires imported to this country in 

 the last forty years have been unsurpassed. That they have 

 failed to hold the place they gained in New England is due 

 partly to the greater skill with which the Jerseys have been 

 boomed, partly to the universal tendency of human nature to fol- 

 low each fresh fashion or fancy, but mainly, doubtless, to the 

 actual superiority of the Jerseys, as a breed, as butter cows. It 

 now appears that in Ayrshire and the adjoining counties increas- 

 ed attention has been given to butter making, and Guernsey 

 bulls have been used to improve the qualities of the cows for 



