Mr. Howard's opportunities of studying this breed, both in Scotland and in this country have been such, that he is eminently fitted to write with authority on the subject. The Committee did not follow his suggestion and give in the Herd Book the lists of premiums taken by the animals at the various Agricultural Fairs, knowing that many of the premiums in this country have been awarded for want of competition, and by judges not acquainted with the excellencies or the peculiarities of the breed. Should this Society ever hold exhibitions, a record of the premiums taken at them would be of great value to breeders in selecting animals for stock purposes.
| HENRY H. PETERS, Southboro', Mass., THOS. E. HATCH, Keene, N. H., WM. BIRNIE, Springfield, Mass., | Committee. |
INTRODUCTION.
The breed of cattle now know as the Ayrshire, undoubtedly originated in the county of that name, in Scotland; but by what special means it was formed cannot be particularly told. Youatt (1835) says, "A century ago there was no such breed in Ayrshire or in Scotland;" and he asks, "Did the [present] Ayrshire cattle arise entirely from a careful selection of the native breed?" adding, "If they did it is a circumstance unparalleled in the history of agriculture. The native breed may be ameliorated by careful selection; its value may be incalculably increased; some good qualities may for the first time be developed; but yet there will be some resemblance to the original stock." A comparison of the modern breed with the description given by Aiton of the cattle which he says occupied Ayrshire fifty years before the time when he wrote (1806), will show that the difference is great. He says, "The cows kept in the districts of Kyle and Cunningham [districts of Ayrshire], were of a diminutive size, ill-fed, ill-shaped, and they yielded but a scanty return in milk; they were mostly of a black color, with stripes of white along the chine or ridge of their backs, about their flanks and on their faces. Their horns were high and crooked, * * * their pile [hair] was coarse and open; and few of them yielded more than three or four Scotch pints [six to eight wine quarts] of milk a day."
Those who are acquainted with the Ayrshire cattle of to-day, will readily admit that they present a wide contrast with the old stock, according to the above description of the latter; and the suggestion of Youatt, that the present breed could not have arisen entirely by selection from the old, seems reasonable. It follows, then, that the Ayrshire, like the modern or "improved" Short Horn breed, originated in crossing. The question as to the breeds from which it was derived, will be briefly considered, although the attempt will not be made to give precise details on this point.
Various accounts represent that the Earl of Marchmont, some time between 1724 and 1740, introduced to his estates, in Berwickshire, some cattle, conjectured (their history was not positively known) to be of the Holderness or Teeswater breed, and that, not long afterwards, some of the stock was carried to estates belonging to the same nobleman, in that part of Ayrshire called Kyle. But, perhaps, the main nucleus of the improved breed was the "Dunlop stock," so called, which appears to have been possessed by a distinguished family by the name of Dunlop, in the Cunningham District of Ayrshire, as early as 1780. This stock, it is said, was derived, at least in part, from animals imported from Holland. The Dunlop cows soon became noted. Rawlin (as quoted by Youatt), who wrote in 1794, speaking of the cattle of Ayrshire, says, "They have another breed, called the Dunlop, which are allowed to be the best race for yielding milk in Great Britain, or Ireland, not only for large quantities, but also for richness and quality." This, though extravagant praise, perhaps, shows that the stock possessed remarkable qualities at that early day. It was, indeed, held in great esteem still earlier. In Youatt's Treatise, it is mentioned, when speaking of the cattle of Dumfrieshire, that the poet Burns, when he occupied a farm near the city of Dumfries, "not content with the Galloway breed, introduced some of the West-Country cows, which he thought would produce more milk." In the poet's published correspondence, allusion is made, in a letter dated November 13th, 1788, to a heifer which had been presented to him by the proprietor of Dunlop House, as "the finest quey in Ayrshire." Mrs. Dunlop, it will be remembered, was a special friend and correspondent of the poet.[A]
Col. Le Couteur, in a paper on the Jersey or Alderney cow, published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, refers to a statement by Quayle, that the Ayrshire was a cross of the Short Horn and Alderney; and adds himself that "there is a considerable affinity between the two breeds." Rawlin also says, in reference to the Ayrshire breed, "It is said to be a mixture by bulls brought from the island of Alderney, with their own or the old race of cows." Martin says, "At some period or other there has evidently been a cross with the Durham or Holderness, and, perhaps, also with the Alderney." Professor Low, in his "Illustrations of British Quadrupeds," says, "From all the evidence which, in the absence of authentic documents, the case admits of, the dairy breed of Ayrshire cows, owes the characters which distinguish it from the older race, to a mixture of the blood of the races of the continent and of the dairy breed of Alderney."
So far, the authorities quoted have, doubtless, given the main facts in regard to the originals of the present Ayrshire cattle. But there is evidence that the present leading type of the breed was formed, in part, by an infusion of the blood of the Kyloe, or West-Highland breed. This appeared in the first instance, probably, in what has been called the Swinley variety. The facts, which the writer has obtained in Scotland in regard to it, are substantially as follows: Theophilus Parton, of Swinley Farm, near Dairy, Ayrshire, about forty to forty-five years ago, took great pains to establish a herd of what were deemed the best Ayrshire cattle, into which he infused a strain of the West-Highland blood, the particular degree of which is not publicly or generally known. The Swinley stock differs from the older Ayrshire in having a shorter head, with more breadth across the eyes, more upright and spreading horns, more hair, and generally better constitutions. They are also somewhat smaller boned than the old stock, though from their superior symmetry, and greater tendency to fatten, they are fully equal to the former in weight of carcass when slaughtered.