State Agricultural Society. 531 



previously by Mr. Wurts. He speaks of her being fed in the usual way 

 on potatoes, and as yielding eight pounds of butter per week; also, as 

 being small, and as being supported with less food than ordinary stock. 

 This cow subsequently came into the possession of Mr. Eeuben Haines. 

 In eighteen hundred and eighteen, being then four years old, she gave 

 an average of fourteen quarts of milk per day, yielding per week ten 

 quarts of cream and over eight pounds of butter of a rich and highly- 

 colored quality. It is not known from which of the islands this animal 

 came. 



In eighteen hundred and forty, an importation was made by Nicholas 

 Biddle from the Island of Guernsey. These where fine animals, and 

 their descendants, still owned by Mr. Biddle's family, are highly prized. 



The importations made about the year eighteen hundred and fifty, by 

 Mr. Motley, for himself and others, and by Messrs. Taintor, Norton, and 

 Buck, near Hartford, may be considered the foundation stock out of 

 which the present race of Jerseys in America has grown. Numerous 

 importations have been made almost constantly since then, but nearly 

 all pedigrees of ten years' standing trace back to animals imported by 

 Motley and Taintor and their associates — a circumstance which is, on 

 the whole, fortunate; for the average quality of animals brought into 

 the country since eighteen hundred and sixty has certainly not been 

 higher than the average of these earlier importations. 



THE JERSEY AS A DAIRY COW. 



The primary object in breeding the Jersey cow is, as in the case of all 

 other dairy races, to secure a good cow — that is, a good milk-giver; and 

 the first point to be regarded is to see that those characteristics which 

 in all cows indicate large milk-giving capacities are permanently pre- 

 served, and those which denote a tendency to the production of fat in 

 the carcass and the production of beef — that is, the grazing quality — be 

 avoided. 



It may be taken as an axiom applicable to all cows, especially during 

 the first three or four years of their lives, that a tendency to beefiness is 

 objectionable where the highest yield of dairy products is desired. In 

 all works on cattle we find general directions for the selection of milk- 

 ing cows, which do not vary materially, and the leading principles of 

 which should always be borne in mind. The description given in 

 "Flint's Milch Cows and Dairy Farming" is in the main as applicable 

 to Jerseys as to any other race, and the reader is referred to this well 

 known work. 



We may well criticise the description there given, however, in some of 

 its points, not only in considering the Jersey cow, but equally in exam- 

 ining other breeds. Small short horns are prettier than long horns; 

 but, in every race, many of the best dairy animals have horns which, 

 while not coarse, and while of excellent color, are long and rather wild- 

 growing. Among Jerseys, especially, many of the best animals have 

 horns nearly black, and the quality of "glistening" is generally the 

 result of accidental or intentional friction. That the neck should thicken 

 as it approaches the shoulder is a statement that should be taken with 

 some conditions. All necks do so thicken, and probably the less promi- 

 nent this characteristic, the better the animal; it is too often the begin- 

 ning of beefiness. Precisely what is meant by "well-formed across the 

 hip and in the rump " should be explained. As a matter of symmetry, 

 a straight rump and evenly-made hips are very desirable; but some 



