THE GUERNSEYS. 443 



well got and carefully reared. Any farmer can better afford to 

 raise such than to purchase from chance opportunities ; and the 

 cost of two or three good calves raised upon a farm each year will 

 never be felt, and in a short time they will come into profit. It 

 stands to reason that the stock that is raised by a farmer at a dis- 

 tance and sent here to be sold cannot be the raiser's best, those he 

 is sure to keep, and it can hardly pay us to buy the poorest to 

 milk a few years and turn over to the butcher. 



In improving our stock we must breed intelligently, bearing in 

 mind that the cow needed for the dairy cannot, under any circum- 

 stances, be selected for those qualities which will produce fat — the 

 two natures are incompatible : to have the best meat we must get 

 rid of every tendency to milk, and to have the best butter we must 

 obviate every disposition to fat. We cannot have both qualities in 

 the same animal, and the attempt will end only in disappointment. 

 And this is one of the proofs of the great value of the Jersey for 

 the dairy : the unusual secretion of the fat in the milk may reason- 

 ably be attributed to the slight waste of the fat-forming portions of 

 the food that moderate respiration and limited exercise make pos- 

 sible, and to the fact that the fat in this form, rather than in flesh, 

 has long been the prime object of the farmer's attention. 



THE GUERNSEYS. 



The Guernsey breed is one that is now rapidly coming into favor 

 as the farmer's cow. It has all the merits of the Jersey for rich 

 milk and high-class butter, and, although it has not the beauty of 

 the Jersey, still it is a larger animal and gives a much larger quan- 

 tity of milk. To those who are acquainted with her excellent qual- 

 ities the Guernsey cow has a beauty that is highly valued. The 

 quietness and docihty of both cows and bulls is very strong recom- 

 mendation of them as one of the best points of a milking stock. 



As large as a small Durham, they are usually of a lemon-fawn 

 or a reddish-yellow color, largely blotched with white. The white, 

 besides being on the sides, across the back and shoulders, and 

 often on the neck, on the belly and at the tip of the tail, is almost 

 always on all four legs, more or less. Around the eye should be 

 circles of buff or yellow ; on the muzzle buff, though black is now 

 being admitted on account of its frequency. The head is long ; 

 the eye mild and placid in its expression ; the horns waxy, thin 

 and crumpled ; the skin usually of a rich golden color ; the hair, 

 even when a little long, soft and fine. Altogether, the animal 

 speaks for itself as a rich butyraceous milk-giver, and in large 

 quantities. No finer butter is made than the firm, waxy-grained, 



