State Agricultural Society. 557 



"Herd Register" by the American Jersey Cattle Club gave prices a new 

 impulse; and now it is difficult to buy a first-class registered cow for less 

 than from three hundred dollars to tive hundred dollars. 



Upon the skill displayed in selecting the bull, will depend the success 

 or failure of the breeder. A bull should, if possible, have a pedigree 

 running back for three or more generations, through strains of repre- 

 sentative butter makers. In form and color he should be as near fault- 

 less as possible, as the sire has the greatest influence in these two re- 

 spects upon the offspring. In form he should be judged by the scale of 

 points prescribed by the Royal Agricultural Society of Jersey. More 

 particularly, he should have a blood like look, be light and airy in his 

 carriage, have delicate limbs, a small head, set rather lightly on his 

 shoulders, with light, yellow, crumpled horns, and a long, slim tail. He 

 should be deep in the flank and open in the twist, with no tendency to 

 fatness about the thighs, and carry in his rear the ensign of a race of 

 milkers — a broad escutcheon. If of fine, vigorous constitution, the closer 

 he is bred, the better. The richest colored calves are got by light col- 

 ored bulls from dark reddish or brown cows. 



The crucial test of a good bull is in the result of his breeding. His 

 female offspring from good cows should be uniformly deep, rich milkers, 

 and of good forms and colors. Any decided and uniform defect may be 

 correctly attributed to the bull. The most desirable quality in his breed- 

 ing is evenness. The production of prodigies is apt to be evidence of 

 eccentric breeding. Uniform excellence is the highest evidence of fine 

 breeding. Jersey bulls have the reputation of being possessed of unami- 

 able dispositions. Being possessed of a light and active physique, and 

 all the hot blood and chivalrous spirit that seems to be inseparably con- 

 nected with aristocratic. birth and the possession of a long array of high- 

 toned ancestors, is it any wonder he is at times inclined to put on airs? 

 Acts properly attributable to viciousness in one animal may be only 

 playfulness in another. Keeping a bull in a stall is apt to render him 

 more or less impotent. Allowing him to run with the herd is dangerous 

 to the herdsman, to stock, and to fences, and is particularly disagreeable 

 to strangers desiring to examine the herd. My own plan is to have a 

 box stall with a small yard attached. The bull has free range of both, 

 and the cows are turned in to him. 



As a rule, the prices received for thoroughbred males of both beef and 

 dairy cattle are not as satisfactory as the prices received for females. 

 The extreme fancy prices paid for animals are usually paid by breeders 

 only who require but one male to some fifteen or twenty females, making 

 from this source fifteen or twenty times the demand for females over 

 males. There are but few farmers or graziers who raise their beef 

 cattle. They usually buy yearlings or steers and dry cows to fatten, 

 which accounts for a naturally small demand for beef bulls. But does 

 this rule apply to dairymen? They, as a rule, keep bulls, while in but- 

 ter dairies the calves are generally selected and raised with great care, 

 but with a total disregard to the remote ancestry of the bull. If he is 

 out of one of the best cows in the herd, this is usually considered suffi- 

 cient. I am happy to state that matters are improving in this respect. 

 In the East we hear of the increased demand for Jersey bulls from farm- 

 ers and dairymen, while at the West I can bear witness to a decided 

 waking up to the importance of using pure bred bulls in the herd. From 

 present indications we can look forward with perfect confidence to see 

 Jersey bulls sell, within the next half dozen years, for as much as, if 

 not more, than we are now receiving for females of like ages. 



