THE GUERNSEY BREED 



47 



1870. It is very evident also that but slight attention was paid 

 by the farmers of the islands to differences in the cattle from 

 another of the islands. In searching- for information that would 

 throw light upon the time when a distinction began to be 

 drawn between the two breeds I was reminded of the story 

 told of an old woman who, when she heard some Daughters 

 of the American Revolution talking about their pedigrees, said : 

 "There's a whole lot of people who had better not study their 

 pedigrees : they may find something that they do not want 

 to know." But it is very evident that, while, as a matter of 

 local pride, there was not an extensive admixture of the cattle 

 from one island to the other, and, while there were laws pro- 

 hibiting the importation of foreign cattle, the cattle of any 

 one of the Channel Islands were not considered foreign on 

 any of the other islands. 



Black and white cow on Alderney. 



I have found plenty of references to the taking of cattle 

 from both Guernsey and Jersey to Alderney and from both 

 Guernsey and Alderney to Jersey, and, while I do not find 

 any direct reference to the taking of cattle from Jersey to 

 Guernsey, it is very certain, from the color of many of the 

 cattle on the Island of Guernsey, that there must have been 

 an admixture of Jersey blood not many generations ago. As 



