STOCK. 179 



show that many gentlemen are turning their attention to this 

 kind of stock. There are those in our midst who are croaking 

 about Jerseys, and pretending to fear that the " bubble will soon 

 burst," and that the price of this class of cows will fall down to 

 natives, and even below. Your Committee at present are not 

 apprehensive of any great falling off in the demand for Jerseys. 

 Their reputation for producing a large proportion of cream is 

 not disputed. The only answer is, that " if they only give half 

 as much milk," then double the proportion of cream is just 

 equal, except that the farmer has only half the quantity of 

 skim-milk for his pigs. All that sounds well if it were true. 

 But the record of various herds, here and elsewhere, shows that 

 from the Jerseys about as large a quantity of milk is obtained 

 as from the best natives. Now we do not pretend to say that 

 the best native cow in the State does not give more milk and 

 more butter than the poorest Jersey. But what we will say is, 

 that fifty Jersey cows, taken indiscriminately, will give more 

 milk than fifty natives, and more than twice the amount of but- 

 ter, on the same feed. If this be true, there is no danger of 

 getting a surplus of these cows on hand at present. As a 

 " gentleman's cow," she is acknowledged to be head and shoul- 

 ders beyond any other cow. A person of means, who keeps one 

 cow to supply his own table, can get a nicer milk and a better 

 butter from a Jersey than from any other cow. The average 

 price of Jersey butter in the large cities is fifty per cent, more 

 a pound than any other kind. 



When it is remembered that acccording to the last United 

 States census, 1860, the number of cows in the United States 

 was nearly nine millions, (8,581,735,) and that among this 

 somewhat extensive herd there was, in 1869, this very last 

 spring, little more than one thousand Jersey cows in the whole 

 republic, there is not much danger of a surplus at present. 



The record, as we gather it from Charles Wyllis Elliot, Esq., 

 who publishes the table in the September number of the " New 

 York Galaxy," is as follows : — 



Massachusetts, 298 



New York, 202 



New Jersey, 164 



Pennsylvania, ........ Ill 



