Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

AYRSHIRE
aboriginal cattle of Great Britain ; and it possibly passed
slowly into distinctive variety, under the modifying in-
fluences of Ayrshire local soil and local climate. It may
really, as to nascent distinctive character, have existed
long prior to last century ; it may have begun to chal-
lenge attention only when men began to be agriculturally
scientific ; and it seems to have acquired development of
shape, colour, and other characteristics under crossing with
imported individuals of English breeds. Several cows and
a bull, thought to have been of the Tees Water breed, or of
some other English breed allied to the Tees Water, and
all of a higli brown and white colour, were brought, in the
year 1750, to the Earl of Marchmont's estates in Kyle ;
and these may have been a source of the colours which
now prevail in the Ayrshire breed. But however this
breed originated, it was fully formed about the year 1780,
and was then adopted, to the exclusion of every other
breed, by the opulent fanners of Dunlop and Stewarton
parishes ; and it afterwards was adopted, as an exclusive
breed, throughout most of the lowland farms of all Cun-
ninghame, Kyle, and Carrick. Nor did it spread merely
throughout Ayrshire, but also into Lanarkshire, Ren-
frewshire, and large portions of Stirlingshire, Dumbar-
tonshire, and Linlithgowshire. The best cows vary in
weight from 20 to 40 stone, according to the quality or
quantity of their food ; they are esteemed mainly for the
abundance of their milk ; and they yield so much as
from 10 to 13 or even 14 Scotch pints per day. They
were long, and generally considered the most lactiferous
cows in Great Britain ; but, though not in Ayrshire, yet
in some other Scottish counties, and especially in Eng-
land, they are now regarded as inferior to the short-
horns. The Ayrshires, according to the verdict of the
best judges based on comprehensive evidence, ought to
be retained as milkers only on cottage holdings, moor-
side farms, and similar situations ; and are far less
eligible than the short-horns on any middle-sized or
large dairy farm. Short-horned cows are much larger
than the Ayrshires, yet do not consume more food in
proportion to their size ; and they produce more valu-
able calves, yield larger quantities of milk, require less
extent of pasture, are less subject to disease, and occasion
less care or labour proportionally to their produce. The
beef of the Ayrshires is of good quality, and possesses a
good admixture of lean and fat, but makes bad returns
to the butcher, and is in no great request. The back
of a prime specimen is straight and nearly level, yet
has one straight depression at the top of the shoulder,
and an evident tendency to another over the loin ; the
ribs are pretty round ; the sides are deep, but show a
deficiency in the fulness of the buttocks ; the breast is
comparatively narrow ; the upper surface of the body
shows far less breadth at the shoulder than at the hocks,
and has a kind of wedge-shaped outline ; the length of
the body is proportionately greater than the height ; the
legs are comparatively short ; the rmrzzle is fine ; the
face is broad but rather short ; the eye is complacent ;
the expression of the face is gentle but dull ; the horns
are short and turned up ; the skin is smooth and thin ;
the touch is good, yet wants the mellowness which ac-
companies a thick soft skin ; and the colours are red and
white like those of the short-horns, but not so rich in
hue, sometimes mixed with black, and always arranged
in blotches and patches which are irregular, seldom cir-
cular, and never grizzled. The greater portion of the
milk throughout Ayrshire is manufactured into cheese.
The best of the cheese bears the name of Dunlop, from
the parish where the Ayrshire breed was first systemati-
cally appreciated for the dairy ; and it lias long and
steadily been in high demand as an article of export.
The bull calves are usually fed for veal ; and the heifer
calves are kept to renew the stock of cows. Attention
to cattle and to the dairy appears to have prevailed from
a remote period, for Ortelius wrote in 1573 that ' in
Cai-rick are oxen of large size, whose flesh is tender and
sweet and juicy,' and the well-known antiquated couplet
runs —
* Kyle for a man, Carriek for a cow,
Cunninglmine for butter and cheese, and Galloway for woo'.'
104
AYRSHIRE
The manufactures of Ayrshire are various and im-
portant. The yearly value of Scotch carpets woven at
Kilmarnock rose from £21,000 in 1791 to £150,000 in
1837, but afterwards fell off to about £100,000. The
weaving of Brussels carpets was begun at Kilmarnock in
1857, and has been prosperously conducted on a large
scale. The weaving of Scotch carpets, and the spinning
of yarns for Brussels carpets, were begun at Ayr in 1832,
and employ some 500 persons. The making of woollen
bonnets at Kilmarnock, Kilmaurs, and Stewarton em-
ploys about 4160 men, women, and children, and turns
out goods to the annual value of £146,500. The weav-
ing of winceys, flannels, plaidings, blankets, tweeds,
tartans, and some other woollen fabrics, employs about
800 persons in Ayr-, Kilmarnock, and Dalrymple. The
spinning of woollen yarn employs about 60 persons at
Crookedholm, and about 350 at Dairy. Linen was
manufactured in Ayrshire more extensively in former
years than now. So many as 22 lint-mills were in the
county in 1772 ; but only 3 flax-mills, employing 172
persons, were in it in 1838. The chief localities of the
linen manufactures have been Kilbirnie and Beith. The
cotton manufacture has failed in some places, as Ayr,
but has largely succeeded in other places, as Catrine,
Kilbirnie, and Patna. The number of cotton mills
within the county in 183S was 4 ; and these employed
703 persons. Hand-loom cotton-weaving, chiefly for
manufacturers in Glasgow, is largely carried on in Fen-
wick, Saltcoats, Tarbolton, Maybole, Girvan, and some
other towns. The embroidering of muslin employed
multitudes of women from about the year 1825 ; was
carried on chiefly in connection with manufacturers in
Glasgow, and acquired such excellence at the hands of
the Ayrshire workers, that the produce of it became
generally known, in both the home and the foreign mar-
kets as Ayrshire needlework ; but sustained a severe
check in 1857, and is not now carried on to so much as
half its previous extent. In 1S79, out of 42 furnaces
built in the shire, 27 were in blast, together producing
276,552 tons of pig-iron. The manufacture of orna-
mental wooden snuff boxes and other small ornamental
wooden articles long employed many persons in Cum-
nock, Mauchline, and Auchinleck ; but has very greatly
declined. Calico-printing, bleaching, silk-weaving, hat-
making, tanning, shoemaking, machine-making, ship-
building, and other departments of industry, employ a
large number of persons.
The roads from Glasgow to Dumfries and Portpatrick,
and from Greenock and Paisley to all the Border counties,
pass through Ayrshire ; and excellent roads connect all
the county's own towns with one another, and with every
place of consequence beyond. The main line of the
Glasgow and South- Western railway enters Ayrshire near
Beith ; proceeds by way of Dairy, Kilmarnock, Mauch-
line, Old Cumnock, and New Cumnock ; and passes
down the valley of the Nith into Dumfriesshire. A
great branch of the same system, originally the southern
part of the Glasgow and Ayr railway, leaves the main
line near Dairy, and proceeds past Irvine and along the
coast to Ayr. Local railways, or branches of the Glas-
gow and South-Western, go from Ayr to Girvan, from
Ayr to Dalmellington, from Ayr to Mauchline, from
Troon to Kilmarnock, from Irvine to Busby, from Kil-
winning to Ardrossan, from Hurlford to Newniilns, and
from Auchinleck to Muirkirk, etc. ; and, together with
the main lines of the Glasgow and South-Western, form
a connected system of communication through great
part of the county. The Girvan and Portpatrick Junction
railway was authorised in 1865, and opened in 1876.
The Greenock and Ayrshire railway, authorised in 1865,
and amalgamated with the Glasgow and South-Western
in 1S72, gives direct communication from all the Ayr-
shire stations of the Glasgow and South-Western system
to Greenock, but has its connection with the system, and
all its course, within Renfrewshire. The Greenock and
Wemyss Bay railway, opened in 1865, has a short run
within the Ayrshire border to Wemyss Bay, and may
eventually be prolonged to Largs. The Glasgow and
Kilmarnock direct railway, authorised in 1865, and com-