THE GUERNSEY COW. 133 



pa^'ing markets of the countiy. Instead of being rent payers we 

 are land owners. Through the influence of the Jersey cow the 

 a)nditioD of the pre-5ent may be changed and our future redound 

 with a prosperous agriculture. 



THE GUERNSEY COW. 



By E. F. BowDiTCH, Millwood Farm, Framuigham, Mass. 



Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: — 



In addressing you upon this subject of the Guernsey cow I should 

 be glad to have anyone ask an}' questions they desire. The 

 answers thus brought out will serve to give a more careful descrip- 

 tion than I should otherwise be able to convey. 



The Guernsey cattle came from the island of that name, which is 

 one of the group between England and France, about sixty or 

 seventy miles from England. The nearest of the group, Jersey, is 

 within about fourteen miles of the coast of France. The climate is 

 very diflerent from ours. It is very much warmer, and the cattle 

 graze practically all the year, at any rate, ten or eleven months. 

 The breeding of the animals on those islands has been rather 

 peculiar. How the breeding originally started is not clearly known, 

 but the laws have been very strict there for many years, so that the 

 animals have been kept distinct. "When the animals were first 

 imported to this country they were all called Alderney, probabably 

 for the reason that Alderne^' was the last of the group at which the 

 steamer touched on its way back to England. But it is a misnomer 

 to call them Alderneys. The Jerseys were the first imported here 

 and they were then known as Alderneys ; but they are entirely 

 distinct, or have been for the last few years. The laws of the 

 Island of Jersey are such that an animal carried there must be 

 killed on the moment of its arrival, no matter what its age. The 

 islands of Guernsey and Alderney, and two little islands that 

 amount to almost nothing, breed their cattle together, so to speak, 

 and many years ago a few Jerseys were probably dropped off of 

 the steamer before the laws were so stringent, on to the island of 

 Alderney. But the laws are now such that no animals except from 

 those little adjacent islands are allowed to land on the island of 

 Guernsey. The breeding of the animals on Guernsey and Jersey 



