JERSEY CATTLE. 



185 



It ma}' be affirmed that butter-making cannot be conducted on 

 anything like a business basis unless each cow in the herd is scpa- 

 retely testt'd for her butter yield for at least three days at a time 

 every three or four months ; and surely no breeder can expect to do 

 less than this and look for success. 



But to return to Major Brown's tables. Few and imperfect as 

 these tests are, and interested as were those by whom these tests 

 were made, 1 nevertheless believe that as compared with the pub- 

 lished yields of cows of other herds these tests are true indications 

 of the superiority of the Jerseys as butter producers. Nor is it un- 

 reasonable to expect these results, when we consider the history of 

 this breed of cattle. Let us look at it for a moment. 



It is no record that more than a century and a half ago visitors to the 

 Island of Jersey found tliere a breed of cattle distinctive in their 

 race characteristics, and, at that time, surpassing all known breeds 

 in the quantity and the quality of their butter ; and among other 

 indications that this race had at an early date a peculiar and valu- 

 able character, are the passage of laws by the States of Jersey as 

 long ago as 1789, prohibiting under special and severe penalties the 

 importation of cattle from France. And if we consider some of the 

 circumstances connected with this race it will not, it seems to me, 

 be surprising that this peculiar value was conspicuous a hundred 

 and tifty years or more ago, and guarded by statute a centur}- ago, 

 and fostered and at last thoroughly fixed as a race — characteristic. 

 In the first place the Jersey cow may be said to be the result of 

 the remarkable climate of the channel islands. The climate of 

 the Island of Jerse}' has, perhaps, not its equal for mildness 

 and uniformit}-. Mildness, moisture and freedom from sudden 

 changes, give us the conditions necessary for the production of a 

 sweet, tender and nourishing herbage, and also for the produc- 

 tion of butter in large quantities and of the highest qualit}'. To 

 favorable climate and food we may add the character of the people 

 and the nature of their farming operations. By race and language 

 French, by conquest and business relations English, the inhabitants 

 of the Island of Jerse}- ma^- be said, from an agricultural point of 

 view, to possess the merits of both races. They are frugal and 

 careful in detail where the P^nglish would be lavish and impatient ; 

 they are enterprising where the French would be restrained by 

 expense or tradition ; they have held fast to what was their peculiar 



