136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



She is a large cow, not as handsome as the Jersey. She general!}' 

 has a large head, a full placid eye, and a pretty large nostril, a tap- 

 ering neck, large round body and pretty straight back. She is well 

 developed as a rule. But the great peculiarity aboiit her is her 

 j-ellow skin. In the summer season nhcn they are in the highest 

 color, you cannot move a hair from her horns to her hoofs but 

 beneath you see a golden skin, which is almost a sure indication 

 that the butter will be of the same desirable color. 



Question. Can j-ou get bigger calves than from the Jerseys ? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. Twice as large. I set my Guernsey cows, two 

 years old when they come in, to be larger than the average Jersey 

 decidedl}'. My bulls at a year old I want to have weigh about 800. 

 The largest bull I ever had was one I kept until he was seven years 

 old, and he weighed 1998 pounds. 



With reference to the winter butter of the Guernsey, it is not 

 necessary to try and make the color high. Twenty years ago the 

 market did not demand butter with a high color. If it had a show 

 of straw color and was good butter that was all that was required. But 

 it seems to me as I have watched the market that it has been since the 

 introduction of the Guernsey that the demand has come for higher 

 color. I had been in the habit of feeding carrots to my Jerseys 

 which has an effect on the color of the butter, and I did the same by 

 my Guernse3's, but soon found I was losing customers, as they said 

 they would stand only a certain amount of coloring. But by feed- 

 ing corn stalks I managed to make butter satisfactory to the trade. 



Question. Do you find it so high colored that it is objectionable 

 in the market in the summer time? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. There are very few dairies of pure Guernseys, 

 and most everybody who purchases Guernsey butter, believe that 

 the butter is not colored artifically, and so the}' are willing to take 

 it. In my first importation of Jersey's some of them made almost as 

 high colored butter as the Guernseys ; but when the fashion came 

 for black faces and solid silver colors they bred out the innate rich- 

 ness which used to apply to the Jersey. They are coming back to 

 it now, however, and I rather think better cows are leaving the 

 islands of Jersey to-day than for many jears. 



Question. Do your Guernse3'8 average more milk per cow than 

 the Jerse}' herd? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. They have done so with me. The highest yield 

 I have ever had from a Guernsey cow is forty-seven pounds. She 



