664 Report on the Cattle 'Exhibited at Windsor. 
counter to the laws which must be observed for purposes of 
practical improvement ; but when the practical breeder, by a 
long series of acts of selection, has moulded the udder to perfect 
form and marvellous capacity, it does seem too bad that the 
mere fancier should step in and demand the diminution of the 
teats. This absurd freak of modern fashion has really done much 
to handicap the Ayrshire in competition with the Jersey, a breed 
against which, in the cloudier districts of England, it should be 
able to dispute the ground in park or paddock. But laborious 
pinching between forefinger and thumb is not the sort of milk- 
ing that puts the cow-man in a sweet temper. The cow-man's 
voice, therefore, and his master's choice, will be against the 
Ayrshire unless the Ayrshire breeder gives him a chance of a 
proper grip. In this particular the breed is decidedly recovering 
from the temporary mischief of an unreasoning fancy. 
The form of the Ayrshire is in strictest agreement with the 
generally recognised ideal of the true dairy type. It is the 
wedge, thin-end forward, in a certain sense, but this should not 
be understood to mean tapering to the front so as to allow no 
play of vital organs. The forelegs, on the contrary, are not close 
together, nor is the chest too narrow, but granted sufficient space 
for the mainspring and other principal works of the machine, 
the power acts in the direction of the udder and its tributaries. 
In the typical dairy cow — let us call her the Ayrshire — we 
have no ungainly hollows and slacknesses, no rude unevennesses 
of outline, but head, neck, breast, and body all cleanly moulded 
and neat, the forequarters shallow as compared with the perpen- 
dicular depth from immediately before the hips, and the top-line 
straight. The udder has its size in its great length forward 
under the body and its rise up the twist, and in its true proportion 
of width to length, and not so much in downward development, 
which always is, when out of due proportion, an unsightly form 
never seen in a typical specimen of this breed. These questions 
have seemed to deserve more than usual consideration here, on 
account of the greater scope of the Jubilee Show than of ordinary 
annual exhibitions for illustrating the various modern develop- 
ments in British breeds of cattle, the representative character of 
the Ayrshire as a dairy breed, and the great amount of attention 
bestowed in years past upon the beef points of exhibited animals, 
whilst we are gradually becoming more and more dependent upon 
dairy stock for the prosperity of British agricultural interests. 
The foregoing general remarks may be illustrated by a few 
particulars. In the fine Class of cows, which of course afforded 
the amplest study of the developed properties of a dairy breed, we 
had the form of udder to which reference has been made. 
