AYRSHIRE CATTLE : DOCrMENTARY HISTORY 

 OF THEIR ORIGIN. 



Breeds of cattle attain their excellences and their 

 prominence by degrees, and their early history is 

 difficult to be traced, as each addition to their use- 

 fulness has either been unrecognized, or has seemed 

 at the time too insignificant to record. 



The history of the Ayrshire breed of cattle is 

 shrouded in the past. But few efforts have been 

 made to lift the veil, and the scanty records that 

 we have, seem little better than personal surmise 

 or unfounded assertion. Everything beyond what 

 well-attested accounts reach is obscure, and the more 

 so here, as few writers have considered the history of 

 agriculture in its details, or the occurrence of a well- 

 defined or growing breed, worthy the pen of the 

 historian. 



Of one fact we are certain. About the close of the 

 last and beginning of the present century, our atten- 

 tion is called to a breed of dairy cows established in 

 the County of Ayrshire, and already having a local 

 celebrity for the quantity and profitableness of their 

 yield of milk. Their origin was probably influenced 

 by the general revival of agriculture which took place 

 7* 



