ALDER TREE. 



ALDERNEY COWS. 



made good heads, they will keep down the 

 weeds, and will require no further care. 



If they be raised by laying down the 

 branches, it must be performed in October; 

 and vby the October following, they will have 

 taken root sufficiently to be transplanted out ; 

 which must be done by digging a hole, and 

 loosening the earth in the place where each 

 plant is to stand, planting the young trees at 

 least a foot and a half deep, cutting off the 

 top to about nine inches above the surface, 

 which will occasion them to shoot out many 

 branches. 



Mr. South, in the sixth volume of the Letters 

 and Papers of the Bath and West of England 

 Society, has stated, that, on planting a wagon- 

 Joad of truncheons in such situations as have 

 been described above, they all appeared to suc- 

 ceed by throwing out strong shoots the first 

 summer, but that the year following they all 

 died, not having struck a single root. Con- 

 cluding that this did not depend on any defect 

 in the soil, he planted it again with small- 

 rooted slips, taken from old stubs, few of 

 which failed, most of them having been since 

 repeatedly cut for brush- wood, poles, and other 

 purposes ; and of those planted single, he ob- 

 serves, one has formed a conical top of great 

 beauty, and that its bole is three feet seven 

 inches in circumference midway between the 

 branches and the ground. From this statement 

 it would seem, that the best mode of securing 

 the growth of those trees is the planting of 

 the rooted slips, which can be easily done, as 

 great quantities of young shoots are annually 

 thrown out from about the roots of this sort of 

 trees. 



Where there are plantations, or much of this 

 sort of wood on a farm, Arthur Young advises 

 that it should be cut when the bark will peel, 

 and be immediately soaked in a pond for two 

 months, as by this means the wood is so much 

 hardened as to be greatly improved in its 

 quality. 



[Among the species of alder found in the 

 United States Michaux describes only two 

 species, the Alnus serrulata, or Common Alder, 

 abounding in the Northern, Middle, andWestern 

 States on the borders of streams and especially 

 in places covered with stagnant water. Its ordi- 

 nary size is eight or ten feet in height, seldom 

 attaining more than two inches in the diameter 

 of its stem. It blooms in January, the sexes 

 being separate on the same stock. The barren 

 flowers resembling those of the birch. The 

 common alder is too small to be applicable to 

 any use in the arts, and from its inferiority of 

 size, it will probably one day give place to the 

 European Alder. 



The Alnus Glauca, or Black Alder, is one of 

 the most beautiful species of the genus. It is 

 unknown in the Southern, rare in the Middle 

 States, and in the North-eastern States, where it 

 is more frequently found, much less multiplied 

 than the common alder. It grows a third taller 

 th)n the latter species, attaining sometimes 

 ei \teen or twenty feet in height and eight 

 inches in diameter. Its leaves are similar in 

 shape, but a third larger. The bark of the trunk 

 and of the secondary branches is smooth, 

 glossy, and of a deep brown colour sprinkled 

 60 



with white. It is employed by hatters for dying 

 black. (North American Sylva,)] 



ALDERNEY COWS. This admired breed 

 ! of cows is in general fine-boned, but small and 

 i ill-made, and of a light red or yellowish colour. 

 Cows of this breed are most frequently met 

 I with in England about the seats of the opulent, 

 from their milk, though smaller in quantity, 

 being more rich in quality than that of most 

 other kinds, and yielding from the same mea- 

 sure a larger proportion of cream and butter, 

 which is of a beautiful yellow colour and fine 

 flavour. They are much inclined to fatten, 

 and their beef has a very fine grain, and is well 

 tasted, but rather more yellow or high-coloured 

 than that of other sorts. 



Mr. Lawrence in his general treatise on 

 cattle, however, supposes, " that the cattle of 

 the islands on the French coast are collectively 

 known by the name of Alderney;" and that 

 " these are a variety of, and smaller than, the 

 Norman ; light red, yellow, dun, and fawn- 

 coloured ; short, wild-horned, deer-necked, with 

 a general resemblance to that animal ; thin, 

 hard, and small-boned; irregular, often very 

 awkwardly shaped." But he considers this de- 

 scription to refer chiefly to the cows. He 

 thinks " they are amongst the best milkers in 

 the world as to quality, and in that respect are 

 either before or immediately next to the long 

 horn, but that in weight of butter for inches 

 they are far superior to all. He has been as- 

 sured by a respectable friend, that " an Alder- 

 ney strayed cow during the three weeks she 

 was kept by the finder made nineteen pounds 

 of butter each week; and the fact was held so 

 extraordinary, as to be thought worth a memo- 

 randum in the parish books." And it is added, 

 that " the Norman and island cattle make fat 

 very quick, and for their bulk arrive at consi- 

 derable weight. The beef," in his opinion, "is 

 of the first class, very fine grained, in colour 

 yellow, or of a high colour, with a bluish cast 

 and elastic feel, which denotes the closest 

 grained, most savoury, and finest meat." It is 

 in his recollection, that, "some years since, a 

 heifer, bred between Alderney and Kentish 

 home-bred stock, and fattened on cabbages and 

 carrots, made one hundred and fifty stone, 

 dying uncommonly fat." On this ground he 

 supposes, that "this species is, in course, a 

 proper cross for the large and coarse-boned ; 

 but in that view he would prefer the real Nor- 

 mans from the Continent, as generally better 

 shaped than the islanders." He likewise 

 states, that "many persons near the metropolis, 

 and along the south and western coast, make 

 a trade of importing these cattle, which are 

 extremely convenient for private families, and 

 make a good figure in parks and lawns." 



Mr. Culley, however, remarks, that they are 

 a breed of cattle too delicate and tender to be 

 much attended to by the British farmer, and 

 not capable of bearing the cold of this island, 

 especially the northern parts of it. 



By an experiment which is stated in the Re- 

 port for the County of Kent, made between a 

 large home-bred cow of eight years old and a 

 small Alderney of two years old, it appears 

 that the home-bred cow in seven days gave 

 thirty-five gallons of milk, which made ten 



