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.”