tion brought a Somerset farmer and his wife in
1855 to teach the Cheddar method, and their effort was most successful.
Cheddar cheese of first-rate quality is now made in Ayrshire, and the
annual cheese show at Kilmarnock is the most important in Scotland. The
Ayrshire breed of cows are famous for the quantity and excellence of their
milk. Great numbers of cattle, sheep and pigs are raised for the market,
and the Ayrshire horse is in high repute.

_Other Industries._--Ayrshire is the principal mining county in Scotland
and has the second largest coalfield. There is a heavy annual output also
of iron ore, pig iron and fire-clay. The chief coal districts are Ayr,
Dalmellington, Patna, Maybole, Drongan, Irvine, Coylton, Stevenston, Beith,
Kilwinning, [v.03 p.0076] Dalry, Kilbirnie, Dreghorn, Kilmarnock, Galston,
Hurlford, Muirkirk, Cumnock and New Cumnock. Ironstone occurs chiefly at
Patna, Coylton, Dalry, Kilbirnie, Dreghorn and Cumnock, and there are blast
furnaces at most of these towns. A valuable whetstone is quarried at Bridge
of Stair on the Ayr--the Water-of-Ayr stone. The leading manufactures are
important. At Catrine are cotton factories and bleachfields, and at Ayr and
Kilmarnock extensive engineering works, and carpet, blanket and woollens,
boot and shoe factories. Cotton, woollens, and other fabrics and hosiery
are also manufactured at Dalry, Kilbirnie, Kilmaurs, Beith and Stewarton.
An extensive trade in chemicals is carried on at Irvine. Near Stevenston
works have been erected in the sandhills for the making of dynamite and
other explosives. There are large lace curtain factories at Galston,
Newmilns and Darvel, and at Beith cabinet-making is a considerable
industry. Shipbuilding is conducted at Troon, Ayr, Irvine and Fairlie,
which is famous for its yachts. The leading ports are Ardrossan, Ayr,
Girvan, Irvine and Troon. Fishing is carried on in the harbours and creeks,
which are divided between the fishery districts of Greenock and Ballantrae.

_Communications_.--The Glasgow & South-Western railway owns most of the
lines within the shire, its system serving all the industrial towns, ports
and seaside resorts. Its trunk line via Girvan to Stranraer commands the
shortest sea passage to Belfast and the north of Ireland, and its main line
via Kilmarnock communicates with Dumfries and Carlisle and so with England.
The Lanarkshire & Ayrshire branch of the Caledonian railway company also
serves a part of the county