If this description of the Ayrshire cow be correct, it will be seen that her head and neck are remarkably clean and fine, the latter swelling gradually towards the shoulders, both parts being unincumbered with superfluous flesh. The same general form extends backwards, the forequarters being light, the shoulders thin, and the carcass swelling out towards the hind quarters, so that standing in front of her it has the form of a blunted wedge. Such a structure indicates very fully developed digestive organs, which exert a powerful influence on the exercise of all the functions of the body, and especially on the secretion of the milky glands, accompanied with milk-veins and udder partaking of the same character as the stomach and viscera, being large and capacious, while the external skin and interior walls of the milk-glands are thin and elastic, and all parts arranged in a manner especially calculated for the production of milk.
A cow with these marks will generally be of a quiet and docile temper, which greatly enhances her value. A cow that is of a quiet and contented disposition feeds at ease, is milked with ease, and yields more than one of an opposite temperament; while after she is past her usefulness as a milker she will easily take on fat, and make fine beef and a good quantity of tallow, because she feeds freely, and when dry the food which went to make milk is converted into fat and flesh. But there is no breed of cows with which gentleness of treatment is so indispensable as with the Ayrshire, on account of her naturally nervous temperament. If she receives other than kind and gentle treatment, she will often resent it with angry looks and gestures, and withhold her milk; and if such treatment is long continued, will dry up; but she willingly and easily yields it to the hand that fondles her, and all her looks and movements towards her friends are quiet and mild.
As already remarked, the Ayrshires in their native country are generally bred for the dairy, and no other object; and the cows have obtained a just and world-wide reputation for this quality. The oxen are, however, very fitly as working cattle, though they cannot be said to excel other breeds in this respect. The Ayrshire steer may be fed and turned at three years old, but for feeding purposes the Ayrshires are greatly improved by a cross with the short-horns, provided regard is had to the size of the animals. It is the opinion of good breeders that a high-bred short-horn bull and a large-sized Ayrshire cow will produce a calf which will come to maturity earlier, and attain greater weight, and sell for more money, than a pure-bred Ayrshire. This cross, with feeding from the start, may be sold fat at two or three years old, the improvement being especially seen in the earlier maturity and the size. Even Youatt, who maintains that the fattening properties of the Ayrshires have been somewhat exaggerated, admits that they will fatten kindly and profitably, and that their meat will be good; while he also asserts that they unite, perhaps, to a greater degree than any other breed, the supposed incompatible qualities of yielding a great deal of milk and beef.
In the cross with the short-horn, the form becomes ordinarily more symmetrical, while there is, perhaps, little risk of lessening the milking qualities of the offspring, if sufficient regard is paid to the selection of the individual animals to breed from. It is thought by some that in the breeding of animals it is the male which gives the external form, or the bony and muscular system of the young, while the female imparts the respiratory organs, the circulation of the blood, the mucous membranes, the organs of secretion, &c.
If this principle is true, it follows that the milking qualities come chiefly from the mother, and that the bull can not materially alter the conditions which determine the transmission of these qualities, especially when they are as strongly marked as they are in the Ayrshire or the Jersey races. Others, however, maintain that it is more important to the perfection of their dairy to make a good choice of bulls than of heifers, because the property of giving much milk is more surely transmitted by the male than the female. Others still maintain that both parents are represented in the offspring, but that it is impossible to say beforehand what parts of the derivative system are to be ascribed to the one parent and what to the other, and that there is a blending and interfusion of the qualities of both which prevent the body of their progeny being mapped out into distinct regions, or divided into separate sets of organs, of which we can say, “This is from the father, that from the mother.”
Till this question is settled, it is safe, in breeding for the dairy, to adhere to the rule of selecting only animals whose progenitors on both sides have been distinguished for their milking qualities. But where the history of either is unknown, a resort to a well-known breed, remarkable for its dairy qualities, is of no small importance; since, though the immediate ancestors of a male may not be known, if he belongs to a dairy breed, it is fair to presume that his progenitors were milkers. A study and comparison of the size and form of the milk mirror, and other points, indicated by Guénon, on a subsequent page, are worthy of careful consideration in selecting animals to breed from for the dairy, not only among pure-bred animals, but especially in crossing. In the scale of points adopted in England and this country as the standard of perfection for an Ayrshire cow, the udder, on which Guénon placed so much reliance, is valued at twelve times as much as that of the Devon, “because,” as the judges affirm, “the Ayrshires have been bred almost exclusively with reference to their milking properties.”
We must conclude, then, that “for purely dairy purposes the Ayrshire cow deserves the first place. In consequence of her small, symmetrical, and compact body, combined with a well-formed chest and a capacious stomach, there is little waste, comparatively speaking, through the respiratory system; while, at the same time, there is very complete assimilation of the food, and thus she converts a large proportion of her food into milk. So remarkable is this fact, that all dairy farmers who have any experience on the point agree in stating that an Ayrshire cow generally gives a larger return of milk for the food consumed than a cow of any other breed. The absolute quantity may not be so great, but it is obtained at a less cost; and this is the point upon which the question of profit depends.”
I have dwelt thus at length upon this race for the reason that it is preeminently a dairy breed, surpassing all other pure breeds in the production of rich milk and butter on soils of medium fertility, and admirably adapted, in my opinion, to raise the character of our stock to a higher standard of excellence. The best milkers I have ever known, in the course of my own observations, were grade Ayrshires, larger in size than the pure bloods, but still sufficiently high grades to give certain signs of their origin. I have owned several such, which were all good cows. This grade would seem to possess the advantage of combining, to some extent, the two qualities of milking and adaptation to beef; and this is no small recommendation of the stock to farmers situated as American farmers are, who wish for milk for some years and then to turn over to the butcher.
The Jersey
cattle have now become widely known in this country. Many of them have been imported from an island of the same name in the British Channel, near the coast of France, and they may now be considered, I think, as fully acclimated. They were first introduced over thirty years ago, from the channel islands Alderney, Guernsey, and Jersey.