eck slender and
long, tapering toward the head, with a little loose skin below;
shoulders and fore quarters light and thin; hind quarters large and
broad; back straight, and joints slack and open; carcass deep in the
rib; tail small and long, reaching to the heels; legs small and short,
with firm joints; udder square, but a little oblong, stretching forward,
thin skinned and capacious, but not low hung; teats or paps small,
pointing outward, and at a considerable distance from each other;
milk-veins capacious and prominent; skin loose, thin, and soft like a
glove; hair short, soft, and woolly; general figure, when in flesh,
handsome and well proportioned.

If this description of the Ayrshire cow be correct, it will be seen that
her head and neck are remarkably clean and fine, the latter swelling
gradually toward the shoulders, both parts being unencumbered with
superfluous flesh. The same general form extends backward, the fore
quarters being, light the shoulders thin, and the carcass swelling out
toward the hind quarters, so that when standing in front of her it has
the form of a blunted wedge. Such a structure indicates very fully
developed digestive organs, which exert a powerful influence on all the
functions of the body, and especially on the secretion of the milky
glands, accompanied with milk-veins and udder partaking of the same
character as the stomach and viscera, being large and capacious, while
the external skin and interior walls of the milk-glands are thin and
elastic, and all parts arranged in a manner especially adapted for the
production of milk.

A cow with these marks will generally be of a quiet and docile temper,
which greatly increases her value. A cow that is of a quiet and
contented disposition feeds at ease, is milked with ease, and yields
more than one of an opposite temperament; while, after she is past her
usefulness as a milker, she will easily take on fat, and make fine beef
and a good quantity of tallow, because she feeds freely, and when dry
the food which went to make milk is converted into fat and flesh. But
there is no breed of cows with which gentle gentleness of treatment is
so indispensable as with the Ayrshire, on account of her naturally
nervous temperament. If she receives other than kind and gentle
treatment, she will often resent it with angry looks and gestures, and
withhold her milk; and if such treatment is long continued, will dry
up; but she willingly and easily yields i