12 maine state society. 



Report ox Ayrshires and Jerseys. 



Your committee are pleased to report a good exhibition of the 

 much abused and underated Jersey or Aldernaj stock. We would 

 particularly mention Mr. P. II. Holmes' herd, of Winthrop, who has 

 been a successful breeder of Jerseys for some years, and who with 

 his father. Dr. E. Holmes, have done more toward introducing the 

 breed and doing away the strong prejudice against them, than any 

 other men in the State. 



Mr. G. H. Bailey of "Westbrook, though a beginner, exhibited 

 some very fine stock, a part of which he, at great expense, obtained 

 from one of the most noted breeders of Jerseys in Massachusetts — 

 a fine heifer, three years old, which Mr. Bailey exhibited, particu- 

 larly attracted the attention of the committee "but not having calved, 

 was not entitled to a premium. 



The Jerseys are becoming more popular ; for butter making they 

 they have no superiors ; the quantity of milk they give is small, but 

 the richness (as proved by the lactometer) far exceeds that of any 

 other breed. We cannot give our opinion of Jerseys better than is 

 expressed in Mr. C. A. Church's report on stock, to the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural Society. After describing the Aldernay, Mr. 

 Church says, "if we except a bright eye. delicate muzzle, and a 

 sharp little horn which gives them a certain game look, these raw- 

 boned little creatures can hardly be deemed beautiful. 



Probably four out of five of our farmers, unacquainted with their 

 merits, would pass them by with derision ; regarding them as ridic- 

 ulous monsters in ugliness, if not in size. But let any one of these 

 farmers behold a few pans of Aldernay milk upon which the golden 

 cream had risen, or spread upon bread the delicious butter made 

 from that same cream, and these little cattle will be clothed with a 

 beauty that the eye alone was unable to discover. 



The Aldernay cattle have always, as far back as their history 

 extends, maintained an unrivalled reputation as producers of delicious 

 cream, from which is made the finest butter. Their yield in milk is 

 never very large, but the milk is always exceedingly rich, producing 

 rarely less than twenty-five, and often thirty-five per cent, of rich 

 cream, always of a deep golden hue." 



Mr. Thos. Motley, Jr., of Massachusetts, who was sent abroad by 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Society in 1851, for the express 



