STOCK. 159 



consumers, believing that the hitter will find Jersey milk at 

 twenty per cent, advance on the price of common milk the 

 cheapest and most satisfactory as an article of food, while the 

 former will soon demonstrate that the best returns come to 

 them, on a long average, from the same source. In places 

 remote from cities, where the product of beef is a leading 

 object, and where young stock is cheap, the keeping of Jer- 

 seys is not urged by your committee, nor would we recom- 

 mend that importations should be made at the prices it now 

 costs ; but that inasmuch as good thoroughbred animals can 

 now be had for a reasonable price, that persons who keep one 

 or more for personal use and profit, and those who keep herds 

 to supply good milk and butter to those who are willing to 

 pay for what superior living costs, should give the preference 

 to such animals as were shown at your exhibition. 



In selecting this stock it does not follow that all cows for 

 which the highest price is asked are the best to buy ; but it is 

 very desirable that careful selection should be made, and that 

 every good strain of blood should be kept free from poorer 

 mixture, as it is as easy to adulterate in cattle-breeding as in 

 anything else. Probably the best purchases can now be 

 made from the surplus of good herds — certainly better than 

 from importers and dealers, whose principal object is to 

 make money, and who, in some instances, sell inferior ani- 

 mals, the only recommendation of which is the fact of impor- 

 tation. 



It seems to be the general impression that Jersey animals 

 require extra good care in order to secure from them a good 

 result. Your committee has no disposition to controvert this 

 opinion. In fact we would admit and emphasize it. We be- 

 lieve that each of the herds exhibited at your fair have pro- 

 duced twenty per cent, higher product for the last year than 

 they would have done if they had received the hap-hazard 

 treatment many persons bestow upon one of the most beauti- 

 ful and valuable animals given to man by the Giver of all 

 good. One member of your committee has a Jersey cow, not 

 above the average size, which gave the last year in three hun- 

 dred and twenty-three days, the time between calves, 6,577 

 pounds of milk, and during twenty-eight days of this time 

 was dry, it being twenty and one-third pounds per day for 



