116 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that to-day Jersey butter is the fashionable butter in the 

 most civilized portions of the world. It fetches the highest 

 prices ever known, and the demand is greater than the 

 supply. 



The Jersey cow unites the minimum of body with the 

 maximum of butter. She not only gives more butter than 

 the cow of any other breed, but she gives it at less cost, and 

 of a better quality than that produced by any other breed. 

 The Jersey is the most profitable butter-producer. She is in 

 the first place a cow of medium size. It is a disputed point 

 as to whether a small cow requires any less food for the re- 

 pairs of a matured body, but I incline to the belief that a 

 cow weighing nine hundred pounds uses up less food in the 

 support of the body than is required by one weighing 

 twelve hundred pounds. At all events the smaller Jersey 

 requires less food to develop her body than does the larger 

 animal. But to return to their butter production. Jersey 

 cows in my stables have made 2 lbs. of butter a day on 1 

 quart of cornmeal and 3 quarts of middlings, and 14 lbs. of 

 hay, all dry, and in a barn so cold that the manure fre- 

 quently froze solid. And on a moderate old pasture, and 

 with no other food, I have had cows make 2| pounds a 

 day. Mr. Boyd's Alderney made over 19 lbs. in 7 days 

 on grass. Bomba made 3 lbs. a day, — four months from 

 her second calf, — on 4 quarts middlings, 2 quarts cornmeal, 

 and an October pasture of moderate quality. And I do 

 not quote the foregoing instances as those of very extraor- 

 dinary cases. They may be taken as fair samples of the 

 better class of Jersey cows. I have collected numerous 

 reports of half, three-quarters and seven-eighths bloods 

 making two pounds of butter a day on similar feed. This, 

 however, is looking at the race from only one point of 

 view. It is important that we should see what cows of this 

 breed can do on larger rations. Haynes's Bess made 24 lbs. 

 11 ozs. in 7 days. Value 2d made 25 lbs. in 7 days. Jersey 

 Bell of Scituate made a like amount in the same time, and 

 Nancy Lee made 26 lbs. in 7 days ; and in this last case her 

 feed was 4 quarts of corn, 6 of bran, and pasture. The 

 Jersey is remarkable not only for daily and weekly amount 

 of butter, but for persistence. Nancy Lee made 95 lbs. 



