The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-03-15

butter. The average yield of an Ayr
shire COW is about 5000 pounds per
year, but 5000 pounds is not unusual,
and 5000 pounds in the year has been
given by 2 year old. A young Ayr
shire with her first calf mas been known
to yield her own weight of milk in Is
days, and some full grown COWS have
given their own weight in 10 day.
Yields of more than 80 quarts day
have been numerously known, and re-
cords OF 40 quarts day have been &C.
caslonally vouched for.
For butter there are several we'll
known strains of this breed. The milk
OF such COWS is not so copiously given,
but it will often make % per cent OF
cream in the cream-guage On test
made in the presence of the writer in
well known heard, the proportion of
cream in the milk of the best Ayrshire
was slightly in excess Of that in the milk
of the best Jersey after standing u
hours. In the writer's herd, which con-
sists of Ayrshires, Jerseys, and Guern-
seys, the first named are in no way be-
hind the last, although these have a well
deserved reputation as being the best of
all cows for butter. In view of these
facts 1t Is difficult to say why the AYR
shire breed is so much neglected. One
sees or hears of no large sales of imported
COWS, bulls, and heifers, or of "combina-
ton sales at which millionaires compete
for the possession of some particular ami
mails at prices ranging well up into the
thousands OF dollars; nor do we hear con-
tlnually of this kind of stock for sale.
Ayrshires are kept busy making milk
and butter, which their owners are busy
selling for their living instead of publish
ing widely their pedigrees and what their
granddams or their sisters or some very
Instantly related animal is said to have
done IN the way of making butter, and
upon which account every animal tracing
in blood to such one is held to be worth
enormous sums. These animals are yalua-
bic to sell, while Ayrshires are valuable
TO keep, and this is perhaps why one rarely
hears OF them. But this neglect is an
injury to the general interest, which is
advanced the better the materials for
work and making farm produce may be ;
and If the Ayrshires are really valuable
COWS the fact should be made known and
repeated until it becomes well spread
abroad
The same may be said of the Devons,
which are the most profitable cattle in
the lighter pastures and the rougher
farms, where beef is a convenient pro-
duct. Thousands of farmers make the
mistake of keeping the large and more
exactlng Shorthorns where the lighter
Devons would be far more proftably
kept. This race has no early history
further than that it was always the
Devon as we know it now. 1t is the
oldest pure race in Europe, or in the
world, of domesticated cattle. Conse-
quently it breeds as true as the buffalo
Intact, truer-for a white buffalo has
been heard of, but never white Devon.
these cattle are always deep blood-red,
and very handsome in form and color in
a green pasture. They have no white
about them excepting the switch at the
end of the tail, and the horns are fine.
moderately long, and spreading. All
through New England and in the vari.
Gus parts of New York, Pennsylvania
Maryland Virginia, and some of the
Southern States, the Devons are numer-
Gus and popular. They are the popular
working cattle, and the most profitable
O00FVs' DuI Iuey are at work Tor their
working owners, and one rarely hears of
them in the noise of the blooming"
which is given to Shorthorns and Here
fords, andhow of late the Scotch polled
cattle; while for the prices given in
many cases for single animals Of these
more fashionable breeds whole herd Of
Devons could be purchased.
Farmers should beware of blooms"
They always take money from the pocket
Of the purchaser and put it into that Of
the owner of the doomed" stock; and
this is precisely the object of the "boom I
A boom is now getting up for polled
cattle, which are all well in their way
and they have the advantage of being
without horns; but all the extra value Of
this special advantage would be hard to
figure up, because we have not a coin
small enough. This class of stock com
petes with the Devons, being Of about the
same size and build, and about as good
for beef and as convenient for grazing or
stall feeding. But there is very little
sense in giving thousand or two dollars
tor a black polled bull or COW when one
can procure an equally good red horn
Devon for tenth of the sum, and neither
one any better than the other for the
purposes for which farmers keep such