DAIRYING INTERESTS. 179 



more profitable, to feed, shelter, and milk the cows, than to 

 let them run down during the cold, raw winter. So the 

 best cows were gradually selected for the better treatment. 

 The process occupied some fifty years, while the country 

 was being drained, limed, and manured. Somewhere 

 about the time Waterloo was fought, the Ayrshire cow had 

 earned a leading dairy reputation. As a first-class milker, 

 she holds it still, and she is as able to hold it in Australia 

 as in the dairies of London, New York, or elsewhere. If 

 she has a fault for Australian dairying, it is the size of the 

 teats, which may be too small for men milkers. 



Jerseys and Alderneys are the true Channel Island 

 breed of dairy stock. They came originally from 

 Normanby, are gentle, and thrive excellently in this 

 country. For richness of milk and as butter-yielders, they 

 are very superior ; but like the Ayrshires, and, indeed, all 

 good milkers, they must have the feed or they cannot give 

 the milk. During late years, and both in Great Britain 

 and America many breeders have tried to improve these 

 cattle. So far, however, they come back to the old 

 stock, so well defined in the native Normanbys and their 

 descendants in the Channel Islands. The colors range 

 from light fawn to dark brown and decided black, and 

 the same distinctive marks are common to us in Australia, 

 ever since the late Mr. Edward Wilson made his selection 

 of Alderneys and sent them to Victoria. The Guernseys, 

 for their greater weight, yield more milk and butter 

 than the others, and carry more flesh. The Alderneys 

 proper have or had much more black, some being nearly all 

 black with just a steel grey patch or a few yellow hairs 

 running through. But, as between tlu use the whole breed 

 make of the feed they eat and the rich quality of their 

 milk, the differences are not marked to any extent. 



Devons. " The pretty reds " come nearest the 

 Channel Islanders for richness of milk ; but unlike the 

 famous breeds named they are unreliable dairy stock. 

 Very desirable crosses, however, are got, having the 

 Devon and also the Shorthorn strains. But all through the 

 breeds, feed comes in as the fhxt requirement for successful 

 dairying, and not for milk only, or for butter or cheese. 



