Seo. 3.] 



COWS— BREEDS COilPARED. 



45 



France. The cows have been long celebrated for the production of very 

 rich milk and cream, but till within a quarter of a century they were com- 

 paratively coarse, ugly, and illsliaped. Improvements have been very 

 marked, but the form of the animal is still far from satisfying the eye. The 

 head of the pure Jersey is fine and tapering, the cheek small, the throat 

 clean, the muzzle fine and cneirclod Avith a light stripe, the nostril high and 

 open ; the horns smooth, crumpled, not very thick at the base, tapering, and 

 tipped with black; ears small and thin, dedp orange color inside; eyes full 

 and placid ; neck straight and fine ; chest broad and deep ; barrel hooped, 

 broad and deep, well ribbed uj) ; back straight from the withers to the hip, 

 and from the top of the hip to the setting on of the tail ; tail fine, at right 

 angles M'ith the back, and hanging down to the hocks ; skin thin, light color, 

 and mellow, covered M-itli fine, soft hair; fore legs short, straight, and fine 

 below the knee ; arm swelling and full above ; hind quarters long and well 

 filled ; hind legs short and straight below the hocks, with bones rather fine, 

 squarely placed, and not too close together; hoofs small; udder full in size, 

 in line with the belly, extending well up behind ; teats of medium size, 

 squarely placed, and wide apart, and milk-veins very prominent. The color 

 is generally cream, dun, or yellow, with more or less white, and the fine 

 head and neck give the cows and heifers a iawn-like appearance, and make 

 them objects of attraction in the park ; but the hind quarters are often too 

 narrow to look well, particularly to those who judge animals from the 

 amount of fiit they carr3\" 



49. Fattening Properties of a Jersey €oWt — "It is asserted by Colonel Le 

 Couteur, of the island of Jersey, that, contrary to the general opinion here, 

 the Jersey cow, when old and no longer wanted as a milker, will, when dry 

 and fed, latteu rapidly, and produce a good quantity and excellent quality 

 of butchers' meat. An old cow, he says, was put up to fatten in October, 

 ISoO, weighing 1,125 lbs., and when killed, the 6th of January, 1S51, she 

 weighed 1,330 lbs., having gained 205 lbs. in 98 days, on 20 lbs. of hay, a 

 little wheat-straw, and 30 lbs. of roots — consisting of carrots, Swedes, and 

 mangel-wurzel — a day." 



50. The Short-horu Durham CoWi — There is no room for dispute about the 

 Durhams being good for beef. For butter or for general dairy purposes, I 

 should not choose them. Mr. Flint says : 



" In sections where the climate is moist and the food abundant and rich, 

 some families of the short-horns may be valuable for the dairy ; but they 

 are most frequently bred exclusively for beef in this country, and in sectioiis 

 where they have attained the highest perfection of form and beauty, so little 

 is thought of their milking qualities, that they are often not milked at all, 

 the calf being allowed to run with the dam." 



Crosses, iiowever, of this breed upon other breeds have produced excellent 

 milkei-s. In "Westchester County, N. Y., there is a valuable strain of dairy 

 stock known as '• Dutch and Durham." 



51. The Dutch ('0W» — The old Holland stock shows a very symmet- 



