The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-03-15
farm aud Garden.
Two Neglected Breeds of Cattle


small quantity of milk, or is poor but
ter maker, and steer is poor feeder
and yields little beef, and that of inferior
quality, the race to which such cattle be-
long can never become popular, because
they are not profitable; and good looks
will not save an animal that has no other
recommendation. But reputation, al
though in this respect it is rarely got
without merit, is loft lost without de-
serving for we are slaves to fashion, and
follow too bhndly the popular fancy,
which is tickle and sometimes foolish
And so it has come about that two meri-
torious breeds of cattle, handsome. use
full, profitable, and of the best repute
are fallen into neglect. These are the
Ayrshires and the Devons, two of the
most ancient and purest breeds of cattle
in existence. The first is a model dairy
cow, a copicus mixer, a rich butter
maker, exceptionally hardy, of hand
some form and color, of good size, a very
easy feeder, gentle, docile, good tenn
pered, robust, and when past profitable
milking age takes on flesh and fat rapidly,
and ma es excellent beef. The second
is model beef animal and a passably
good dairy COW. 1t is the oldest pure
race of domesticated cattle in existence.
and has been known in its present
character for several centuries in Devon
shire, England, from which locality it
takes its name. 1t is compact and well
built, second-rate IN size, but active and
well fitted for our light Eastern pastures
and for billy ground The COWS give a
large yield OF very rich milk for a mode
rate time, when they begin to fail and
gradually fall off. The steers make the
very best oxen, which can be trained to
do anything, and are active as ordinary
farm horses, either on the road or in the
furrow; and when fed for beef they pro-
duce a better quality than any other
beef animal, the meat being of rich
color, tender, Juicy, and beautifully mar
bled with fat intermixed with the lean,
and not laid on in patches and "fools'
pieces, and on the inside in chunks of
tallow which are waste and offal, and
not meat.
The Ayrshire has been noted as a
dairy COW for about century. For but
ter and cheese there has never been a
better cow. The Dunlop cheeses made in
Ayrshire, in Scotland, have long been
noted for their richness and excellence,
while the Ayrshire butter has been sent
to the London market done up in fancy
prints, as is now the fashion in our
: modern "gilt-edge" diaries, for scores of
years. This COW has the extraordinary
merit OF having caused the improvement
IN agriculture that began in Western
Scotland about hundred years ago and
has IN It's results made the Vale of AYR
the garden Of Scotland. For instead
OF being the creature of a high system of
farming, as is the Jersey cow, the AYR
shire, by its gradual development into
an excellent COW, forced its owners to
grow better crops and to drain and i'm
prove their pastures to give their stock
the scope and subsistence which it re-
CURED, and as soon as the old native
stock OF the locality, comparatively poor
as 1t then was, became improved by or
supplanted by the first Ayrshires, the
agricultural methods were improved too.
Stables and cow-sheds were then first
used for shelter oats were grown for
fodder in place Of the native gorse and
heather, and lands were inclosed and
grass encouraged to grow or even seeded
down. With stables and sheds manure
accumulated, and the farmers were
obliged to put this out upon their fields,
and by and by the culture of roots was
introduced, and with it high state of
farming, which soon became proverbial
as the Scotch system The economical
Scot, eager to save land and to get the
greatest produce from it, used wire fences
3O years ago, because they occupied the
least room and did away altogether
with such fences as were not required to
confne the cattle at pasture. All this
grew out Of the rapid improvement of
I the Ayrshire cattle. The origin of the
breed is variously stated The best au-
thenticated history gives it as starting
with the same race of cattle as that from
which the Short-horn was developed
modified by crossing with that race from
which sprang the modern JERSEYS. The
breed now partakes of Just such charac-
t7ristics as might be expected from such
a union, and when this cross-bred race
had become well fixed, it was used upon
the native cattle with such effect as in
time to eliminate all that original blood
and displace it with the new strain. This
was the Birth Of the breed Education.
training, and culture made it what it now
49, At first true dairy animal, its
capacity in this respect was cultivated
steadily and persistentlv The excellent