THE JERSEYS. 441 



bring in more money. As a breed to cross with larger stock, or 

 even with the Jersey to increase the richness of its great flow of 

 milk, we would recommend it highly. 



THE JERSEYS. 



The Jerseys — formerly called Alderneys, from the fact that they 

 were imported into England from the Channel Isles, of which Jer- 

 sey and Alderney are well known — have of late years so occupied 

 public attention that we must devote some space to their well- 

 defined merits. 



The Jerseys are noted for their extraordinary richness of milk and 

 their beautiful form, thus making them the most desirable breed for 

 small country places, for crossing with other breeds to improve the 

 strain of milking qualities, and for giving character to the butter of 

 the dairyman. 



Brought up in a mild climate which hardly knows any winter, 

 they have been imported into this country, and stand the change 

 and the rigors of our winter nearly if not quite as well as our natives, 

 and in fact improve so much that many good breeders claim that 

 we have fine cows born here of the Jersey breed that are superior to 

 the majority of those in the Channel Islands. 



In their native country great care is taken of them ; they are 

 housed from the wet, are carefully fed, and form almost as much 

 one of the family as the pig in Ireland. When pasturing, as the 

 farms are very small, they are tethered by a rope attached to their 

 horns, allowing them a circle of sixteen feet diameter, and changed 

 to new spots three times a day. With the constant contact they 

 have with the farmers, or mostly their wives, who have the princi- 

 pal care of them, the cows become very docile and affectionate. In 

 this country, where the same care is not taken of them, they some- 

 times become wild, and even very cross. 



The peculiar colors and beautiful shape of the Jerseys at once 

 excite attention, and enable them to be recognized at a glance, their 

 deer-like heads and large prominent eyes being very noticeable. 

 Their chief characteristics are : in the cpw the head is small, thin 

 and rather long ; her horn is short, delicate and curved forward, 

 white with a dark tip ; her muzzle is black, and encircled with a 

 band of light color, as is the eye, which is bright, large and prom- 

 inent ; her ear is small and flexible, the inside skin being bright 

 yellow : her neck is thin and delicate, and of medium length ; her 

 shoulders thin and sloping, and forming with the fore ribs a gradual 

 slope outward to the hips ; the back tolerably straight from withers 

 to setting on of tail, though generally with some sway from the size 



