516 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



the cream at the same time producing more ounces of butter to 

 the quart. 



An experiment was recently tried, with a view to testing this ques- 

 tion, with three pure-bred Jersey cows, three grades, (one one-half, 

 one three-quarters, and one seven-eighths Jersey,) and three native 

 animals. All were in about equally good condition, having run 

 about the same average length of time since calving, and all were 

 fed in precisely the same manner. It was found that while it 

 required eleven quarts of the milk of the "native" cows to make 

 a pound of butter, and eight and a quarter quarts of the milk of the 

 grades, a pound of much better butter was made from six and one- 

 third quarts of the milk of the Jerseys. The difference in the 

 amount of food was considerable, — that of the pure Jerseys being 

 the least of all. The number of quarts of milk, of course, was much 

 less in the case of the Jerseys than of the grades, and in the case 

 of the grades than of the "natives j" but the general result estab- 

 lished the fact that a given quantity of butter was produced by the 

 Jersey cattle by the consumption of less food than the others 

 required. Being smaller animals, less was required to main- 

 tain their ordinary vital functions. There recently came to 

 my notice the case of a pure Jersey cow that, during her 

 prime, for eight weeks in succession produced sixteen pounds 

 of butter per week. The late Mr. John T. Norton, of Farm- 

 ington, Connecticut, keeping quite a large herd of pure Jersey 

 cows, found that they yielded a yearly average of somewhat 

 more than two hundred pounds of butter each. While these 

 animals are noted for the production of large quantities of rich 

 butter, they are comparatively valueless for the cheese dairy, and 

 still more so for the selling of milk. 



These pure breeds are in the main the originators of the dairy 

 animals of the United States ; yet there are very few dairies in the 

 whole country that are supplied only with pure stock, the pure 

 breeding being almost exclusively in the hands of those who 

 make the 'sale of thoroughbred animals, at high prices, a con- 

 siderable item of their business. But the demand on which 

 their high prices are based is largely for the use of thoroughbred 



