practical papers —dairying. 
345 
The last mentioned was one of the poorest dairies, the first, one 
of the best. Those are sufficient to show that some dairies pro¬ 
duce over 100 per cent, more than others do. This difference is 
in a measure to be attributed to the milking qualities of the cows 
as well as to the feed and care of them. Every farmer may know 
that there is a great difference in the constitutional propensities of 
animals. Some will produce from a given amount of food, a 
greater amount of flesh or fat than others, and some yield a greater 
quantity of milk, under the circumstances. 
These constitutional traits are to a certain extent hereditary, and 
that families or breeds are characterised by peculiar propensities, 
which greatly affect their value for special purposes, any one that 
has given this subject any attention, cannot deny. 
Could the dairymen cf Wisconsin breed a stock of cows that 
the whole dairy would average as good as 25 per cent, of our best 
eows, it would increase our dairy product at least 25 per cent. 
Wisconsin, in 1872, produced 8,000,000 pounds of cheese, which, 
at 12 1-2 cents per pound, would be one million dollars; the 
amount of milk manufactured into cheese did not exceed one 
fourth of the whole. The question is, how can this be accom¬ 
plished ? I answer, by strictly adhering to the law of breeding. 
That like begets like, there is little or no doubt. Therefore, breed 
from the best breed, and families of milking stock. Breed for a 
certain purpose, and let that purpose be a good constitution, and 
well developed milking points. 
The Ayrshire breed, which takes its name from the county of 
Ayr in Scotland, where it originated (or existed) about ninety 
years ago, has become widely disseminated, and, if we may credit 
accounts and authorities, it is now, as a dairy breed, the most 
popular in Great Britain or America. 
The most authentic accounts represent the modern Ayrshire to 
have been formed by a union of several breeds. The breed ap¬ 
pears to have been first known under the name of the Dunlop 
stock, having been owned by a distinguished family in Ayrshire 
by that name, as early as 1780. 
Bawlin, who wrote in 1794, speaking of the cattle of Ayrshire, 
says, “ They have another breed called the Dunlop cows, which 
are allowed to be the best race for yielding milk in Great Britain 
