THE AVRSHIRES. 61 



Ayrsliire cows capable of giving 900 gallons in the year, it would be 

 difficult to bring ten of them together ; and in stocks, the greater 

 number most carefully selected and liberally fed, from 650 to 700 

 gallons is the very highest produce of each in the year." 



Mr. Rankine, on his own farm, the soil of an inferior nature, pro- 

 duced about 550 gallons, and the receipts amounted to only £7 13s. 

 6d. per cow. 



We have entered at length into this, because it is of importance to 

 ascertain the real value and produce of this breed of cattle. 



The Ayrshire cattle are not yet sufficiently known, and cannot be 

 procured cheap enough, or in adequate numbers, to undergo a fair 

 trial in the south. Some have been tried in the London dairies. As 

 mere milkers, they could not compete with the long-established 

 metropolitan dairy cow, the short-horn. They yielded as much 

 milk, in proportion to size and food, but not in proportion to the 

 room occupied, and the increased trouble which they gave from 

 being more numerous, in order to supply the requisite quantity of 

 milk. They produced an unusual quantity of rich cream ; but there 

 was so much difficulty in procuring them, to keep up the stock, and 

 the price asked so great, that they were compartively abandoned. 



The fattening properties of the Ayrshire cattle we believe to be 

 exaggerated. They will feed kindly and profitably, and their meat 

 will be good. They will fatten on farms and in districts where others 

 could not, except supported by artificial food. They unite, perhaps, 

 to a greater degree than any other breed, the supposed incompatible 

 properties of yielding a great deal of milk and beef. It is, however, 

 on the inferior soil and the moist climate of Ayrshire, and the west 

 of Scotland, that their superiority as milkers is most remarkable. On 

 their natural food of poor quality they give milk abundantly and 

 long, and often until within a few days of calving ; but when they 

 are moved to richer pasture, their constitution changes, and they con- 

 vert their food more into beef. In their own country, a cow of a 

 fleshy make, and which seldom proves a good milker, may be easily 

 raised to 40 or 50 stones, and bullocks of three years old are brought 

 to weigh from 50 to 60 stones. There is a lurking tendency to fatten 

 about them which good pasture will bring forth ; so that when the 

 Ayrshire cow is sent to England she loses her superiority as a milker, 

 and begins to accumulate flesh. On this account it is that the 

 English dealers who purchase the Ayrshire cows generally select the 

 coarsest animals, to avoid the consequence of the change of climate 

 and food. It is useless to exaggerate the qualities of any cattle, and 

 it cannot be denied that even in this tendency to fatten when their 

 milk begins to fail, or Avhich often causes it to fail, the Ayrshires 

 must yield to their forefathers the Highlanders, and to their neigh- 

 bors the Galloways, when put on a poor soil ; and they will be left 

 considerably behind their short-horn sires when transplanted to 



