214: DAIRY i:tfG. 



II. Guernsey Cattle. 



By Prof. W. H. Caldwell, Peterboro, N. H,, Sec'y Am. Guernsey Cattle 



Club. 



The Guernsey breed takes its name from the Island of 

 Guernsey, one of the Channel, or sometimes termed Alder- 

 ney, Islands. The origin of the Channel Island cattle, 

 while somewhat involved in controversy, is generally be- 

 lieved to have come from stock originally from the French 

 provinces of Normandy and Brittany, and that the founda- 

 tion for the Guernseys was laid by crossing the Normandy 

 bull on the Brittany cow. It is very interesting to turn to 

 the Island of Guernsey, cut o"ff as it is from the main land 

 by the little strip of sea, and protected on all sides by 

 a rough, rocky coast, and note the characteristics which 

 we find there that have played so important a part in 

 moulding the character of the Guernsey of to-day. There 

 the shrewd, careful, sturdy people have labored many years 

 to produce a cow that should excel in butter production. 

 Their labors have been rewarded in the Guernsey, which is 

 noted the world over for producing butter of the highest 

 natural color and with the least outlay for cost of feed. 

 Fate might have been different with these people but for 

 their insular situation, pride of self-government, habits and 

 customs, which led them to zealously fight invasions, and 

 even as early as 1789 to take measures against the fraud- 

 ulent importation of stock. In 1826 came more stringent 

 laws, that prohibited importation to the island except for 

 slaughter. It thus isolated the islanders and their cows 

 from the cattle kingdom. 



The striking appearance of the Guernsey is at once seen 

 in its rich yellow skin, which has always been noted as the 

 characteristic of a good butter-cow. In appearance they are 

 rangy, deep, business-looking animals, with a particularly 

 quiet, gentle, tractable temperament, free from nervous- 

 ness. The prevailing color is a delicate shade of fawn with 

 white markings, and cream-colored nose; and their most 

 remarkable characteristic of richness is apparent in the 



