LIVE STOCK. 319 



strongest indications of being most abundant milkers, shown 

 at the cattle show at Dundee, have, in my view, rarely been 

 surpassed. Of the Aberdeenshire cattle, a picture of a superior 

 specimen is given, vol. i. p. 385. 



(7.) The Alderney or Guernsey Cattle. Of all the cows 

 which I ever saw, the handsomest, that which gave my eye the 

 most pleasure, that which gave the best promise of being what a 

 cow should be, was an Alderney, or rather, improved Guernsey 

 cow, brought from one of the Channel Islands, and shown at the 

 meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, at Southampton. 

 She was rising two years old, of moderate size, compact, and 

 well-shaped, of that yellowish dun color which generally charac 

 terizes the breed, with a large and golden udder, ears of an orange 

 color in the inside, a clean and thin neck, and the bright eye of 

 a gazelle. This showed to what perfection the breed might be 

 brought ; for, in general, they are exceedingly ugly, small, thin, 

 coarse-boned, and presenting little more than the skeletons of 

 animals, covered with a yellowish, flabby, and coarse hide. 

 They come principally from the Channel Islands, Jersey and 

 Guernsey, and abound in parts of Hampshire, and counties 

 most accessible to these islands. They are valued mostly for 

 their milking properties, and not so much, in that respect, for the 

 quantity, as for the extraordinarily rich and creamy quality of 

 their milk, in which certainly they surpass all other breeds. It 

 is stated that no animals will thrive faster, when well-fed and not 

 in milk and their size is not always inferior. I found at Wei- 

 beck, the residence of the Duke of Portland, a herd of Alderney 

 cows, of the size of ordinary cows, and in good condition.* Few 

 gentlemen or noblemen in England, resident in the country, are 

 without one or more Alderney cows, for the supply of their tables 



* Two Alderney oxen, fatted by that distinguished and liberal friend to agricul 

 tural improvement, Sir Charles Morgan, of Tredegar, Wales, weighed alive, the 

 one, one thousand six hundred and ninety pounds, the other one thousand six- 

 hundred and fifty pounds. 



Tliis excellent man, now verging towards ninety years old, but retaining in 

 his mind all the elasticity and cheerfulness of youth, has an annual agricultural 

 show on his own estate, free to competition, arid, since its institution, has him 

 self given more than five thousand pounds, or twenty-five thousand dollars, in 

 premiums. I have had the pleasure of attending two of these shows, and wit 

 nessing the grateful enthusiasm with which this agricultural patriarch is received 

 amonof his attached neighbors and friends. 



