36 THE DAIRY OF THE FARM. 



the Yorkshire cow, essentially a shorthorn, is displacing 

 it. This therefore is at present peculiarly the milk-pro- 

 ducing breed of the country. In the midland counties the 

 long-horned hreed does indeed still retain its place in dairy 

 herds, and yields well enough to justify its retention. 

 Elsewhere the Devon, a much smaller animal, yields hut a 

 small quantity of milk ; the Hereford, an animal of nearly 

 equal size, is also deficient in its yield, and in neither of 

 these counties does the prevalence of a peculiar breed 

 produce anything like a general dairy husbandry. The 

 London milk dairies are thus almost exclusively of this 

 short-horned Yorkshire cow, and excepting Suffolk, Ayr- 

 shire, and the Channel Islands, it is extending more or 

 less into every dairy district of the country. It has the 

 advantage over all other sorts, that its calves make more 

 valuable oxen, and its cows, after five or six years' milking, 

 are more easily turned into beef. The milk, compared 

 with that of other smaller breeds, is remarkable rather for 

 quantity than quality, and therefore it is adapted either for 

 direct consumption, or for the production of cheese, rather 

 than of butter. For this reason, while taken for town 

 dairies, and for the cheese-producing districts, the Ayrshire 

 or the Channel Island sort are preferred by those who 

 merely wish a home supply of dairy produce for the 

 house. Good shorthorn cows are now offered for sale in 

 almost every considerable market in the kingdom. The 

 northern fairs, however, as those of Yarm, Northallerton, 

 Darlington, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, furnish the best 

 choice. The fairs of Northampton, Boston (Lincolnshire), 

 Stow-in-the-Wold (Gloucestershire), are also noteworthy. 

 The best young cows just calved are worth from 20Z. to 

 25Z. apiece : prices, however, varying from year to year. 



