134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



have been rather different in many waj^s. The people of Guernsey, 

 which is much the smaller island, are strictly an agricultural people. 

 They raise a great many vegetables for the London market, and 

 almost ever}' farmer has his few cows. I think I did not see a 

 single animal loose on the island of Guernsey when I was there. 

 They are tethered, or, as they call it, " pegged out." The breed- 

 ing there has been following the line of the cow that was productive 

 of the most and best butter, without any regard to her color or 

 personal peculiarity, whereas in Jersey they have gone more for 

 fancy colors. On the island of Guernsey 3'ou find cows of light 

 red, brindle, brindle and white and black and white and some with 

 black noses, although the breed is supposed to have a yellow nose, 

 and I think it is much better to keep it so if possible in order to 

 distinguish it from the Jersey. The Guernsey is a very much 

 larger animal than the Jersey. I should sa}' the Guernsey cow at 

 maturity on the island would average about 1100 pounds. They 

 are taken care of almost wholly by women. The men have very 

 little care of them in any way, either in the barn or at tether. The 

 kind treatment they receive from the women renders them very quiet 

 and tractable. I have seen on the island one woman leading seven 

 cows with perfect ease by long ropes to tpther them out. They are 

 pegged out ten or eleven months in the year, and they feed them a 

 little grain. I think the largest yield of milk I heard spoken of on 

 the island was twent^'-three quarts a day. That is rather large. 

 The average Guernsey cow on the island is said to give sixteen or 

 seventeen quarts, and in her best estate, at five or six years of age, is 

 expected to make two pounds of butter a day. They generally 

 come in with their first calf at about two years of age, and at that 

 age are expected to give about a pound of butter in the flow. 



Question. You speak of feeding grain. What kind? 



Mr, BowDiTCH. On the island they feed principally bran. For 

 the last few years they have been feeding a great deal of our 

 American grain, and they are beginning to feed more corn meal and 

 a little cotton seed. 



The people there are very primitive. The}' do exactly as their 

 forefathers did and it takes years and years to start an innovation. 

 The climate is mild in winter and a great many English people go 

 there on that account, temporarily. One of their main streets is so 

 narrow that you have to get onto a doorstep to escape being run 

 over when a wagon comes along. Tlie land is very much broken 



