The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1923-05-10


dairy farming which has included the
building up, of a high class herd of Ayr
shires and has more than won his
spurs in the business. He is a typi-
cal Ayrshire farmer, no, he is more
than that, he is an ideal Ayrshire
Mariner, keeping his land in very
high condition of filth, producing
splendid crops, and growing good
"enouch" cattle to quite frequently
sweep the show yards almost clean.
l saw, on his farm, the best crops
of turnips and mangofds that / saw
in the whole of Britain. / also saw
q few Border Leicester sheep on the
place and to satisfy my curiosity at
their unexpected presence l made
some inquiry. to find that they were
a partnership affair in which the son
Allan and the herdsman, Jimmie, were
very much interested.
To an inquiry rs to how they paid
I got the reply, II doot they dinna,
IL we counted the corn they eat. We
have got some guild prices, but If
there is a high priced ane 'or twa
at the sale 1t aye belong to Allan or
Jimmie, while the kind o. muddin anes
are always mine, l ken naething about
the beast ayaw so | dinna ken whe-
Their they jouk me or no. but | do ken
they are aye eating corn. and pasture
that the dairy COOS should haze" This
in a good natured way describes how
hard it is to make a sheep man out of
a lifelong breeder of Ayrshires.
BUILDING A HIGH STANDARD
Mr.. Barr hogan farming first at
''Monkland" farm that has for near
ly two hundred years been in the
hands of the Barr family and he made
this name as familiar to breeders Of
Ayrshires in Canada and the United
States as he has of recent years made
the name "Hobsland." While never
sacrificing anything in attractiveness
in his plans of breeding and keeping
the show yard constantly building up
high standard of production for
the Ayrshire, in fact he has done
much for the breed by constantly
keeping away from type of Ayrshire
COW that almost destroyed the breed,
duction.
For a time, Mr.. Barr said. he bought
a few of the extreme. show yard type
with small teats and fleshy udders, all
class, and no utility qualities, an ex-
IRENE to which you would have scarce
ly expected to find Scotch breeders
running, but he very shortly deter
mined that he could not afford to breed
two kinds of cows, and as there was
only one kind that would help to pay
the rent he gave his attention to the
production of cows that would give a
profitable milk yield while not ne
glecting appearance except where 1t
interferred with production. Too
many of the breeders did not realize
this soon enough, and the Ayrshire
COW has suffered great deal in the
export market as a result. In, fact,
for some years the purchase in Scot
land for export of certain class of
prize winning COW was very damaging
to the breed in the country to which
they were sent and where they had
to engage in competition with other
dairy breeds in the production. IL milk
and butter. Happily, there were
number of good breeders of the same
mind as Tom Barr. and so there has
been built up in its native district
type of Ayrshire COW worthy of the
breed and worthy of the purpose for
which dairy cows are kept.
THE FAD FOR LEVEL UDDERs
The length to which these show
yard fads carried Ayrshire breeders
is hard to understand. A number
of the breeders had determined to
have a handsome COW. according to
their standard Of beauty. She had
to be straight in her lines and very
smooth in conformation. Her horns
had to curve gracefully back, or be
trained Inf that direction. These qua
Titles were by no means undesirable
and should not have in any way in
terferred with her usefulness as a
milk producer, unless they were adj
Judged of more Importance than milk
Their standards Of beauty called, how
ever, for something more. They cal
led for q level square udder, of prae-
tically no depth, and very small neat
teats. The fad for "level" udders,
that Is, one that scarcely dropped low
er than the cows stomach, or middle.
became so great that for show pur-
poses COWS with fleshy udders We're
selected because 1t was possible to
shape" such an udder.