122 JERSEY CATTLE. 



It is related that two of the best cows on the island were 

 chosen as models. One was considered perfect in fore-end, 

 the other perfect in hind-end; and from these the first stand- 

 ard of excellence was drawn. 



Improvement was rapid until 1840, and has been steady 

 ever since, though modified to some extent by outside in- 

 fluences. 



Cattle from the Channel Islands were introduced into Eng- 

 land at an early date; but as the first importations were marie 

 from Alderney, this term was for many years applied to all 

 the Channel Island cattle, though unjustly; for the Guernsey 

 and Jerseys differ considerably from each other, and from 

 the cattle on the Island of Alderney, which are very few in 

 number. 



Of the many English breeders, only one has done work of 

 such nature as to deserve special attention. This was Phillip 

 Dauncey of Horwood, England, who began breeding about 

 1830, and continued breeding for milk and butter with unusual 

 skill and success until 1867, when owing to poor health, he 

 was obliged to disperse his herd. He received high prices 

 for the same, and was instrumental in bringing Jerseys prom- 

 inently before the public in England; but he was, unfortu- 

 nately, a faddist on color, preferring the solid fawn colors, 

 or even darker; and the fashion thus set spread to America 

 and worked considerable harm to the breed; for the Jersey 

 Island breeders, finding solid colors in demand, reserved all 

 such male calves, even though they were from inferior milk- 

 ing dams; while the calves of broken colors were sacrificed, 

 no matter how good. This seriously damaged the breed, and 

 tended to lower the standard of merit very decidedly; but 

 the fashion has to a degree vanished. 



Originating, in all probability, in a cross between two 

 distinct breeds, kept under remarkably uniform conditions 

 of climate and food, and reared under extremely intensive 

 conditions, Jerseys have been developed by patient selection 

 for one purpose milk and butter producing capacity. The 

 small size of the island, and the exclusion of all other cattle, 

 has contributed to this end to a marked degree, for it has 

 not only led to more or less in-breeding, but has effectually 

 excluded blood that might be a disturbing element in the 

 production of a definite type. 



