WHY I PREFER THE JERSEY. 77 



WHY I PREFER THE JERSEY. 

 By S. T. Floyd. Winthrop. 



First, they are easier to raise than other breeds. The calves take 

 kindly to drinking their rations, wean easily, are good pets and 

 good feeders. They are intelligent and pretty, so it is a pleasure to 

 care for them ; children like to feed them. They come to maturity 

 young, coming into the dairy at from twenty-two to twenty-four 

 months old ; they will pay their way from that time on I tested 

 one at two years old that had given milk four months, and she 

 made eight and three- fourth pounds of butter in seven days. Anotiier 

 good quality of the -Jerse}- cow is, she goes dry but a short timt- : 

 while other breeds require from two to three months' vacation from 

 the dairy, the Jersey will hardlj' take as many weeks. I have 

 alread}' remarked that the calves are good feeders, so are thecoiv^ : 

 always possessed (jf good appetites, and about as good as sheep I j 

 ch^ar the weed- and foul grasses out of a pasture. Mine was over- 

 run with buttercups and ox-eye daisies when I began with Jersey's, 

 and now June and July can only show close cro[)ped grass. 



Again, ih> .Jersey will bear more good feed, convert it profitably 

 into butter, and hold out longer than any breed I know. My nearest 

 neighbor has one sixteen years old that has always been fed what 

 farmers call ''high," and now, twelve months since her last calf, is 

 giving twenty-seven and one-half pounds of good, rich milk daily. 



But the most important reason why I perfer the Jersey is the 

 good quality of her butter. She meLy thrive well on our hard and 

 rock}' pastures, stand our cold winters, or high pressure feeding, 

 still if she will not leave a margin when her product is sold and the 

 bills are paid, she will soon grow out of favor with the hard work- 

 ing and economical farmer. It is really the great question which 

 breed will pay best. We do not keep cows and our wives do not 

 make butter for pleasure, but for pay, and the cows that will pro- 

 duce the most at the least cost, as a class, are indisputably the 

 Jerse}'. Neither is quantity all. Quality has much to do with the 

 income of a dair}'. Ten cents a pound will make quite a difference 

 in summing up the receipts of even a small dairy, for a year. 

 Yet this difference is often made by consumers who know the 

 difference between Jersey and other grades of butter. This is no 



