XII 



MILK PRODUCTION IN SOUTH-WEST 

 SCOTLAND 



ONCE away from the intensive arable country of the 

 Ayrshire coast most of the rest of the south-west of Scot- 

 land is given up to stock farming and milk production. 

 The district is the home of two very distinct races of 

 cattle, the Galloways and the Ayrshires, each holding 

 a leading position in the live-stock world, the one for 

 milk, the other for beef, but with no points in common. 

 The Ayrshire breed appears to have originated in the 

 uplands of Ayr and Renfrew, always on thin, poor soils 

 and in a wet inclement climate, so that it has become 

 an exceedingly hardy race, capable of maintaining a 

 flow of milk under difficult conditions of weather and 

 pasturage. The same causes have operated to produce 

 a small breed ; the ordinary Ayrshire cows of to-day 

 weigh no more than 9 or 10 cwt., though regularly 

 giving as much milk as Shorthorns weighing half as 

 much again. Ayrshires are characteristic dairy cows 

 in their fine heads and angular wedge-shaped frames 

 that seem to carry little flesh because all the food has 

 gone to make milk ; as far as the records go they 

 appear to have undergone little change in character 

 for the last century or so. Originating in a country 

 of hill pastures they are active, quick-moving cattle, 

 and this characteristic is accentuated by the upward- 

 pointing horns ; all the experts insist that an Ayrshire 



