68 



head is absent. Black or dark muzzles often occur and amber 

 coloured horns and hoofs and deep yellow skin in the ears and on 

 the udder and body generally are characteristic. 



Butter and Milk Production. Guernsey butter is deeper in 

 colour than Jersey butter. This has raised the breed in the estima- 

 tion of dairy farmers in this country, who often include one or 

 two Guernsey cows in their herds of Shorthorns or Ayrshires to 

 impart a richer appearance to both milk and. butter. An ordinary 

 yield of butter from cows kept in a natural way, is 10 to 12 Ib. 

 a week. 



Hardiness. The hardiness of the breed has been well demonstra- 

 ted by a breeder as far north as Midlothian, who has kept a herd 

 for over 19 years. After the first winter, the heifer calves 

 run in the fields with merely an open shelter-shed to retire to at will 

 until they come into profit at two years and three months old. The 

 average annual milk yield of the herd is 700 to 750 gallons a cow. 



Herd Books. There are between six and seven thousand cattle in 

 the Island of Guernsey, about half being cows and heifers in milk 

 and in calf. Over 1,000 heifer calves and 200 bull calves are 

 registered annually in the Herd Book of the Royal Guernsey 

 Agricultural and Horticultural Society. Guernseys bred in 

 England are registered by the English Guernsey Cattle Society. 



Until lately no official list of milk records has been kept but in 

 August, 1911, a scheme was brought into operation by the Royal 

 Guernsey Agricultural and Horticultural Society and at the 

 beginning of 1912 a scheme supervised by the English Guernsey 

 Cattle Society was started ; in future records will appear in the 

 two Herd Books. Results of tests at the London Dairy Show 

 appear at the end of this section, p. 71. 



THE BRITISH HOLSTEIN. 



References have already been made to the fact that many of our 

 breeds of cattle are indebted to importations of Dutch stock, made 

 particularly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which to 

 varying extents modified the native cattle. In addition to these, 

 large numbers of Dutch cows were imported in the nineteenth century 

 and kept by dairymen and dairy farmers particularly in the south 

 eastern and eastern counties, and in the districts around Edinburgh 

 and Aberdeen. With the passing of the Act prohibiting the 

 importation of live cattle, except for purposes of immediate slaughter, 

 further introduction was stopped, but a sufficient number of the 

 breed remained to preserve it from extinction, and in 1909 the 

 British Holstein Cattle Society was formed with the object of 

 developing the breed and of looking after its interests. British 

 Holstein cattle are similar to the Holstein-Friesians of America and 

 like them are mainly descended from the black-and-white Friesian 

 cattle of the Netherlands, though some slight admixture with other 

 breeds of Dutch cattle especially those to be found nearest the 

 coast, and in the neighbourhood of Rotterdam and Amsterdam 

 has taken place. 



General appearance. British Holstein Cattle are large in frame, 

 almost as large as average Shorthorns, and show true milking type, 

 Lhough they have more of the characters of dual purpose cattle 



