CHAPTER X. 



The Guernsey in England 



It is evident from the quotation in Chapter II from 

 Youatt's "Cattle" that the Guernseys have been known and 

 appreciated in England for one hundred years or more; but 

 there was no organization of the English breeders to form a 

 Herd Book until 1885, when The English Guernsey Cattle 

 Society was formed. G. Neville Wyatt was the first secretary, 

 and the first volume of the Herd Book was issued in 1885, in 

 which were registered 306 females and 74 bulls. 



An examination of the entries of this first volume shows 

 that Cowslip 60 was the oldest cow registered, being dropped 

 in the year 1869. Her sire and dam were imported from 

 Guernsey. She was bred in England by Lord Falmouth. But 

 I find that the cow Cissus I 50, bred August 10, 1877, goes 

 back four generations on her dam's side, as her pedigree 

 indicates, and two on her sire's side, so that this would indi- 

 cate that some of the foundation stock had been imported 

 much earlier. 



From the preface of the first volume of the Herd Book, 

 it is quite evident that the English breeder was not only plan- 

 ning to preserve the purity of the breed for his own satisfac- 

 tion but also that he might capture a portion of the American 

 trade. This is evidenced by the following quotation : 



"It is clear that American buyers, for instance, cannot 

 afford to incur the expenses and run the risks of carrying 

 cattle across the Atlantic unless they are in a position to 

 obtain very high prices indeed at the end of the voyage. And 

 it is equally clear that those high prices will only be forth- 

 coming for animals whose purity of origin is demonstrable. 

 Certainty of pedigree must come in support of the promise 

 of intrinsic value, and this combination once achieved there 

 is no reason whatever why English Guernsey blood should 

 not become as fashionable as that of the best known Island 

 herds. Indeed, it is possible that foreign buyers may event- 

 ually prefer our cattle, for there is a growing opinion, prob- 

 ably well founded, of their superior hardiness." 



Rule five of their Society was : 



"No animal shall be eligible for the English Guernsey 

 Herd Book that cannot trace back its pedigree on both sire's 

 and dam's sides to imported stock." To them this rule evi- 

 dently meant animals from any one of the Islands, and while 



