138 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



pound of butter and a pound of cheese have probably not been recorded' 



My dairy-woman, however, tells me that a fair average quantity of 

 milk to 1 pound of butter would be 24 pounds, and this, too, in the sum- 

 mer months, when the cows get nothing but grass. From a given 

 quantity of food the Ayrshire breed gives a greater quantity of butter 

 than any other, giving more milk and retaining a far better condition 

 of health. 



I may also state that the very best-fattened Ayrshire steer shows a 

 proportion of meat at maturity of 68 to 71 per cent. The Duke of Mon- 

 trose's prize steers were said to exhibit 80 per cent. An Ayrshire steer 

 is an extremely kindly feeder, and becomes at a period of from twenty- 

 four to thirty-six months superior beef, if well kept throughout, with a 

 live weight of 1,100 pounds to 1,250 pounds. A cow fattens quicker 

 and to a greater degree of perfection than any of the rival breeds for 

 the dairy. The soil in Ayrshire, where the breed was brought to per- 

 fection, is of a stiff, clayey nature, exhibiting throughout a substratum 

 of limestone, coal, or iron-stone. Near the coast it is sandy. In Ren- 

 frewshire the soil is variable, some parts being of a light nature with a 

 rocky bottom, and others being like that where the breed was perfected, 

 of a stiff, clayey nature. The grasses chiefly cultivatednay solely 

 are perennial : rye grass, timothy, and red clover. 



The Ayrshire cattle have never, like some other breeds, been used 

 for draft purposes. They are too beautiful and profitable to be ap- 

 plied to such purposes. A fact, and a scientific one, too, is that the 

 milk of the Ayrshire is healthier and sounder than that of any other 

 breed, while it keeps fresh for a longer period and is more easily di- 

 gested. 



Experience of Ayrshire breeders. Mr. David Allan, M. B. C. V. S., 

 who has had considerable experience among Scotch dairies, says: 



A good Ayrshire cow will give annually about 750 gallons of milk, which will produce 

 about 275 pounds of butter or 550 pounds of cheese. It, however, does not arrive at ma- 

 turity for full milking until five years, although three years is reckoned to be the age. 

 When at maturity at that age (three years), the live weight of a good heifer is about 11 

 cwt. and the dead weight of flesh about 5 to 6 cwt., to which, in the case of a bull or 

 ox, add a fifth. The soil is mostly of a light red marl on limestone or sandstone. 

 The grasses that are cultivated are chielly rye grass, timothy, and the different 

 clovers. I do not know of any Ayrshires being used for the purposes of draft. The 

 system of feeding these cattle is, cooked food in winter, such as chaff, turnips, beau 

 meal, draff, and cabbage, and grass in summer for milch cows. Feeding stock have 

 turnips and oil-cake along with hay. With regard to housing, the young cattle go 

 loose, whilst the feeding and milch cows are tied up. We visited a dairy of 300 Ayr- 

 shires in Mr. Allan's district. The work was all done by girls. The milk is sent to 

 Glasgow. The food Is mixed in coppers and given hot in winter grains, chaff, and 

 roots. They yield about 10 quarts a head ; breed tolerably well. The country is 

 bleak and cold ; soil heavy. Size and other particulars as shown above. 



Another writer, in referring to the Ayrshire, says : 



Ayrshire cows, from five to seven years old, which are full fed in town and surburban 

 dairies, are almost invariably fat after being milked and fed from nine to twelve 

 months. They, however, are not in such forward condition as Shorthorns would be 

 under similar treatment, yet for the same quantity of food put through the bodies of 

 a certain number of animals of a given value no breed will produce the ,<?aine amount 

 of milk as the Ayrshires. There is, however, this drawback, and it is agreat one from 

 atown or suburban dairy-farmer's point of view, viz, that if the cows are bought at the 

 calving and sold fat when dry, they seldom make as much as fat beasts as they did as 

 calvers ; whereas with the Shorthorn as much, if not more, is made. What money 

 value, however, which the Ayrshire lacks as a butcher's beast it makes up in milk. 

 Under all other circumstances where the cows are not sold as fat, after a year's use, 

 but kept on for the dairy for a number of years, the position of matters is completely 

 changed, for the loss which might be incurred between the buying price as a calve r 

 and the selling price as a fat beast is spread over several years instead of being 

 borne by one. 



