CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 145 



reach. Their chief merit is as large oxen, for heavy 

 labor, and for beef. Some grade cows from good milk- 

 ing dams give a fair quantity of milk, and what they 

 give is always rich, but wherever they have been intro- 

 duced, milking qualities generally deteriorate very 

 much. 



The Ayrshires are a breed especially valuable for 

 dairy purposes. Kegarding its origin, Mr. Alton who 

 felt much interest in the subject, and whose opportuni- 

 ties for knowing the facts were second to those of no 

 other, writing about forty years since, says, " The 

 dairy breed of cows in the county of Ayr now so much 

 and so deservedly esteemed, is not, in their present 

 form, an ancient or indigenous race, but a breed formed 

 during the memory of living individuals and which have 

 been gradually improving for more than fifty years past, 

 till now they are brought to a degree of perfection that 

 has never been surpassed as dairy stock in any part of 

 Britain, or probably in the world. They have increased 

 to double their former -size, and they yield about four 

 and some of them five times as much milk as formerly. 

 By greater attention to breeding and feeding, they have 

 been changed from an ill-shaped, puny, mongrel race of 

 cattle to a fixed and specific breed of excellent color and 

 quality. So gradually and imperceptibly were im- 

 provements in the breed and condition of the cattle 



