188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Having smaller bodies than any of the other leading breeds, they 

 require less food to sustain these bodies while growing, and they 

 require less food to sustain these bodies when they have reached 

 maturity'. The^' come into profit at least a year earlier than other 

 breeds, and thus make a saving to their owners of a twelve month's 

 food, handling and housing. This is no small item considering the 

 labor, expense and risk attending the 3-ounger years of valuable 

 stock ; and the}- live as long as the cattle of any other breed. They 

 are as gentle and prolific as any other breed. They are as hardy as 

 any other breed. 



A herd of twenty H. R. Jersej' milking cows with which I am 

 intimately acquainted were obliged, during a very cold, snowy and 

 windy winter in western Massaclmsetts, to go half a mile and back 

 daily for their drink of water, and the track thev had to make for 

 themselves was through snow drifts up to their bellies, and across a 

 bleak hill-pasture exposed to the coldest northwest winds, and the 

 brook from which the}' drank was often covered with solid ice, two 

 or three inches thick through which holes had to be chopped for 

 them daily, and the stable these cows lay in was so cold that their 

 dung frequently froze solid. Yet these cows during this whole year 

 did not shrink from their average of 285 pounds of butter for old 

 and young, and calves born every month of this winter developed 

 into fuU-sized and handsome animals. 



The Jerseys are the most persistent milkers of any breed. They 

 do not go dry for more than six or eight weeks, and there are many 

 instances of cows giving half a dozen large, healthy calves in as 

 many years without ever ceasing to give a good yield of milk. 



Another important consideration, from the profitable point of 

 view, is the fact of the great richness of the milk of this breed. 

 This gives us just so much less "skim milk," or water, to be drawn 

 from the udder, to be carried to the dairy, to be provided with pan 

 room ; these three making no small saving of time, labor and ex- 

 pense in the course of a year. The young cow Bomba, though 

 having grass as well as grain, made her 21 pounds 11| ounces of 

 butter from 205 pounds 6 ounces of milk. 



From the larger size of the butter globule the cream rises quicker 

 and churns quicker than in the case of other breeds, and, in conse- 

 quence, the cream is exposed for a shorter time to risks of injury 

 from odors and ferments ; and in the churn the quicker the butter 

 comes, the better, as a rule, will the grain be ; undoubtedly upon 



