112 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
with one another as to present a uniform class of 
characters. Some have horns, and some are destitute 
of horns ; and, for the most part, they are of coarse, 
angular form. The prevailing colour is white, or 
black mixed with white. They are hardy, and 
subsist well on indifferent food ; and the cows are 
usually good milkers. Like all the cattle of the 
lower country termed home-breds, they are slow 
in arriving at maturity, but the muscular substance 
is well mixed with the fatty ; and as they produce a 
good proportion of internal fat, they are valued by 
the butchers in the markets to which they are 
carried." 
With the Ayrshire, a native of that portion of 
south-western Scotland from which it takes its name, 
we reach the second purely British breed reared 
solely for the purposes of the dairy, the other being 
the Kerry. In its present form the Ayrshire appears 
to be a breed of comparatively modern origin, as it 
is not even mentioned by Culley in his work on Live 
Stock, published in 1786,; and there is likewise 
evidence that it is one with a very complex origin, 
that is to say, it has been the result of numerous 
crosses. In 1825 the cattle of the Ayrshire district 
were described as being a puny, ill-shaped type, for 
the most part black in colour, with more or less white 
on the face, back, and flanks. Five-and-fifty years 
before that date they had, however, been crossed with 
shorthorn or other stock from Teeswater ; while a 
further cross of uncertain nature is stated to have 
taken place in 1805, some writers affirming that a 
shorthorn and Jersey or Alderney cross was employed 
at an early date in the improvement of the breed. 
Again, it appears certain that a fine herd of Ayr- 
