1 Junz, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 431 
texture and colour being uniform throughout, while in a few cases, owing to 
the slight tendency of heat, the flavour tended more to the greasy side. Our 
buyers, who have been long educated to the pale colour of Danish butter and. 
margarin mixtures, will not take a deep-coloured butter, even though the 
quality be choicest, and in this case they consider that the price must be lowered. 
if a sale is to result.” 
The Queensland butter-makers have evidently, from this, struck the home 
taste as to colour; it only remains for them to keep the colour uniform, provided 
the butter itself is all that can be desired. 
THE AYRSHIRE COW. 
Dorrna the last few years a good deal has been said and written about the 
Ayrshire cow, both in her favour and against her. Being closely associated with: 
their breeding and management all my days, I will offer you a few remarks on 
what experience I have obtained during that time. A good deal has been 
written about the origin of the Ayrshire. Some hold that there has been a 
cross of the Highland in them, and others have various other theories, and try 
to trace them back for a considerable number of years. About that I don’t 
profess to know much. One thing, we have now a distinct dairy breed, which 
every breeder and fancier, who is doing his duty, should endeavour to bring to 
the highest state of perfection, both as regards her own appearance and also her: 
rent-paying and profit-making capacity. It is principally on the Ayrshire cow 
that a large number of the Ayrshire farmers have to depend for paying their 
rent, and it is of the greatest importance that he should have a stock of cows 
that will produce the greatest amount of good, rich milk on the smallest amount of 
feeding. In order to know about breeding thoroughly you must serve your time 
to the trade, make yourself a thorough milker, watch all their various habits, 
and study the different strains. Even after being amongst them for years you 
can always be learning something new. There seems to bea great difference of 
opinion amongst a certain class of peor about what should be the proper 
points of an ideal cow; but almost all thorough, practical breeders are pretty 
well agreed on that point, if they could only produce what they would like to be 
at. Most people have a natural tendency to run up the kind they happen to 
have at the present time. The following are what I would consider the proper 
oints for an ideal Ayrshire cow :—The cow should be a fair, good size, but not 
too large. The head should be a medium size, the muzzle broad ; broad between 
the eyes, and the eyes clear and bright, and standing out prominently. The 
forehead should be wide, and the horns should stand well up, and not be too long 
or too thick, and there should be a good width between the tips. The neck 
should not be too long, but should be free from any thick fleshiness. The 
shoulder should not stand up like the roof of a house, but should be nicely 
rounded, and the blades should fit nicely into the body, and not bulge out and 
work up and down loosely. The fore pierces should be well placed into the 
animal, and not be sticking out prominently and ugly-looking. The animal! 
should carry a nice thickness of flesh behind the shoulder when not milking, and 
she should be well thickened out and deep round the lungs and heart, so as they 
may have room to do their work properly. The back should be straight from the 
shoulder to the end of rump, and the ribs should be well sprung out from the 
back. The hook or tor bones should be fairly wide and fairly prominent. Do not 
have them too wide and pointed, for that and a high-cutting shoulder means extra. 
feeding to keep the animal in decent condition. The hind quarters should 
be long and square, with a nice place for the tail to fit properly into. 
The thighs should be fairly thick, but not bulged out and beefy, and the 
hock should have a nice, natural curve. The cow should haye fine flat bones,. 
show good substance, be deep at the flank, and the flank should run well into 
the thigh. The skin should be thin and loose, and covered with a nice silky 
coat of hair. The udder, when filled with milk, should be long, broad, and level, 
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