342 THE ox. 



thing remarkable. The older breed of the country seems to 

 have been one of those varieties of coarse cattle, with horns 

 of a medium length, which formerly occupied all the central 

 mountains south of the Forth, and extended into the plains. 

 Mr Ayton, who published a treatise on the Dairy Husbandry 

 of Ayrshire in 1825, describes them, from his own recollec- 

 tion, as having been a puny unshapely race, not superior to 

 those yet met with in many of the higher districts. They 

 were mostly, he tells us, of a black colour, marked with white 

 on the face, the back, and the flanks, and few of the Cows 

 yielded more than from one and a half to two gallons of milk 

 in the day, at the height of the season, or weighed, when fat, 

 more than 20 stones. But previous to the period referred 

 to, cattle" of other races had been mingled in blood with the 

 native Ayrshire. It is stated, on competent authority, that, 

 even so early as the middle of the century, the Earl of March- 

 mont had brought, from his estates in Berwickshire, a bull 

 and several cows which he had procured from the Bishop of 

 Durham, of the Teeswater Breed, then known by the name 

 of the Holstein or Dutch Breed; and mention is made of 

 other proprietors who brought to their parks foreign Cows 

 apparently of the same race. To what degree these casual 

 importations affected the native breed of Ayrshire is not cer- 

 tainly known ; but tradition refers likewise to an early impor*- 

 tation of individuals of the Alderney Breed to the parish of 

 Dunlop, which became first distinguished for its Cows and 

 the produce of its dairy. This tradition is almost confirmed 

 by the similarity existing between the Alderney Breed and 

 the modern Ayrshire, which is so great as to lead us, inde- 

 pendently of tradition, to the conclusion, that the blood of 

 the one has been largely mixed with that of the other. There 

 is the same peculiar character of the horns, and colour of the 

 skin ; and the general resemblance of the form is so great, 

 that in many cases a Jersey Cow might be mistaken for an 

 Ayrshire one. We may assume, then, from all the evidence 

 which, in the absence of authentic documents, the case admits 



