THE AYRSHIRES are justly celebrated throughout Great Britain and this country for their excellent dairy qualities. Though the most recent in their origin, they are pretty distinct from the other Scotch and English races. In color, the pure Ayrshires are generally red and white, spotted or mottled, not roan like many of the short-horns, but often presenting a bright contrast of colors. They are sometimes, though rarely, nearly or quite all red, and sometimes black and white; but the favorite color is red and white brightly contrasted, and by some, strawberry-color is preferred. The head is small, fine, and clean; the face long, and narrow at the muzzle, with a sprightly yet generally mild expression; eye small, smart, and lively; the horns short, fine, and slightly twisted upwards, set wide apart at the roots; the neck thin; body enlarging from fore to hind quarters; the back straight and narrow, but broad across the loin; joints rather loose and open; ribs rather flat; hind quarters rather thin; bone fine; tail long, fine and bushy at the end; hair generally thin and soft; udder light color and capacious, extending well forward under the belly; teats of the cow of medium size, generally set regularly and wide apart; milk-veins prominent and well developed. The carcass of the pure-bred Ayrshire is light, particularly the fore quarters, which is considered by good judges as an index of great milking qualities; but the pelvis is capacious and wide over the hips. On the whole, the Ayrshire is good-looking, but wants some of the symmetry and aptitude to fatten which characterize the short-horn, which is supposed to have contributed to build up this valuable breed on the basis of the original stock of the county of Ayr; a county extending along the eastern shore of the Frith of Clyde, in the south-western part of Scotland, and divided into three districts, known as Carrick, Cunningham, and Kyle: the first famous as the lordship of Robert Bruce, the last for the production of this, one of the most remarkable dairy breeds of cows in the world. The original stock of this county, which undoubtedly formed the basis of the present Ayrshire breed, are described by Aiton, in his _Treatise on the Dairy Breed of Cows_, as of a diminutive size, ill fed, ill shaped, and yielding but a scanty return in milk. They were mostly of a black color, with large stripes of white along the chine and ridge of their backs, about the flanks, and on their faces. Their horns were high and crooked, having deep ringlets at the root,--the plainest proof that the cattle were but scantily fed; the chine of their backs stood up high and narrow; their sides were lank, short, and thin; their hides thick, and adhering to their bones; their pile was coarse and open; and few of them yielded more than six or eight quarts of milk a day when in their best plight, or weighed when fat more than from twelve to sixteen or twenty stones avoirdupois, at eight pounds the stone, sinking offal.