344 THE OX. 



the breed is to be estimated solely by its adaptation to the 

 uses of the dairy. The attention of breeders having been 

 directed exclusively to this end, the animals have acquired, 

 in an eminent degree, the properties sought for ; and their 

 external form accords with that which indicates this faculty, 

 and not with that which shews a disposition to arrive at early 

 maturity of muscle and fatness. Those, therefore, who sup- 

 pose that the Ayrshire Breed combines the properties of a 

 dairy and grazing stock, entirely mistake its distinctive cha- 

 racters. It stands in the first class as a dairy stock, but 

 occupies an inferior place as one to be reared for fattening. 



The Ayrshire Breed has long been extended from its na- 

 tive districts to all the neighbouring counties where the regu- 

 lar dairy is established. It now forms the prevailing stock 

 of Renfrew, Dumbarton, Stirling, and Lanark, and it has ex- 

 tended into the shires of Dumfries, Wigton, and Kirkcud- 

 bright. It has been carried into England, where, however, 

 it has never arrived at the estimation which it possesses in its 

 native pastures. All cows succeed best in the places where 

 they have been reared, and those of Ayrshire appear to have 

 the peculiarity of tending too much to fatten, with a corre- 

 sponding diminution of milk, when they are transported to 

 richer herbage than is natural to them. They have been 

 tried in the great dairy establishments of London, but have 

 always been relinquished in favour of the Yorkshire and 

 larger breeds. 



Some breeders in Ayrshire have begun to cross the breed 

 with the Short-horns. This may suit the purposes of parti- 

 cular breeders, because the first crosses will always be supe- 

 rior to the native stock in size, form, and grazing qualities, 

 and little inferior to it for the production of milk ; but the 

 practice cannot benefit the general breed, now so uniform in 

 its characters, and so well suited to the husbandry of the 

 'country. The true method of improving it is to preserve it 

 in the purity which it has acquired, and to adopt such modes 

 of treatment and feeding as shall conduce to the further de- 



