Aiton remembered well the time when some short-horn or Dutch cattle, as they were then called, were procured by some gentlemen in Scotland, and particularly by one John Dunlop, of Cunningham, who brought some Dutch cows--doubtless short-horns--to his byres soon after the year 1760. As they were then provided with the best of pasture, and the dairy was the chief object of the neighborhood, these cattle soon excited attention, and the small farmers began to raise up crosses from them. This was in Cunningham, one of the districts of Ayrshire, and Mr. Dunlop’s were, without doubt, among the first of the stranger breed that reached that region. About 1750, a little previous to the above date, the Earl of Marchmont bought of the Bishop of Durham several cows and a bull of the Teeswater breed, all of a brown color spotted with white, and kept them some time at his seat in Berwickshire. His lordship had extensive estates in Kyle, another district of Ayrshire, and thither his factor, Bruce Campbell, took some of the Teeswater breed and kept them for some time, and their progeny spread over various parts of Ayrshire. A bull, after serving many cows of the estates already mentioned, was sold to a Mr. Hamilton, in another quarter of Ayrshire, and raised a numerous offspring. About the year 1767, also, John Orr sent from Glasgow to his estate in Ayrshire some fine milch cows, of a much larger size than any then in that region. One of them cost six pounds, which was more than twice the price of the best cow in that quarter. These cows were well fed, and of course yielded a large return of milk; and the farmers, for miles around, were eager to get their calves to raise. About the same time, also, a few other noblemen and gentlemen, stimulated by example, bought cattle of the same appearance, in color brown spotted with white, all of them larger than the native cattle of the county, and when well fed yielding much larger quantities of milk, and their calves were all raised. Bulls of their breed and color were preferred to all others. From the description given of these cattle, there is no doubt that they were the old Teeswater, or Dutch; the foundation, also, according to the best authorities, of the modern improved short-horns. With them and the crosses obtained from them the whole county gradually became stocked, and supplied the neighboring counties, by degrees, till at present the whole region, comprising the counties of Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Dumbarton, and Stirling, and more than a fourth part of the whole population of Scotland, a large proportion of which is engaged in manufactures and commercial or mechanical pursuits, furnishing a ready market for milk and butter, is almost exclusively stocked with Ayrshires.