224 



MILCH CATTLE THE JERSEY 



ordinary farm dairies, where specially rich milk is wanted ; 

 also as a guarantee against the milk of a herd falling below 

 the legal minimum of 3 per cent, of fat and 8.5 per cent, of 

 other solids ; or, where butter is the manufactured product, to 

 make the churning of the cream more easy, and to give the 

 Jersey tint and flavour to the butter. 1 The whole milk is too 

 rich for rearing calves, and separated milk and cream substitutes 

 are more economical, and are used with more success. 



The cows are extremely docile, owing to their being 

 constantly tethered at pasture in the Island, while the bulls 

 are more dangerous to strangers than bulls of other breeds 

 an objectionable feature which develops in the cows when 

 reared in a state of nature under Argentine camp conditions. 

 No doubt this unruly tendency is one explanation of the old 

 custom on the Island, which involved the destruction of bulls 

 before they were three years old, as a precautionary measure 

 of safety to human life. Another reason advanced to account 

 for this practice is that the bulls, while young, had so many 

 cows put to them that they became used-up and worthless. 



The general average of produce during the best part 

 of the milking season may be stated at 8 to 12 quarts of 

 milk per day, yielding from 7 to 9 Ibs. of butter per week, 

 although occasionally there will be found individual cows 

 which give rather more than double the average, i.e., from 1 5 

 to 1 8 Ibs., and even 20 Ibs. of butter a week. 



Thos. Quayle, in 1812, gave 22 imperial quarts "as the 

 greatest quantity of milk given in twenty-four hours, the 

 medium quantity being 10 quarts i.e., 5^ gallons, with an 

 average of 2j gallons." 



Records at St Helier's Show, Jersey, in May 1904. 



1 Ernest Mathews has advanced strong reasons why the Jersey should 

 be regarded an ordinary rent-paying dairy cow, in a paper on "The 

 Jersey Cow," read at a Congress of the British Dairy Farmers in Jersey, 

 May 1905, to which indebtedness is acknowledged, see B. D. F. Journal. 



