180 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Total, 



1,058 



There seems to be some confusion in the minds of many, and 

 some among them breeders even, with reference to the Alderney 

 and Jersey cows. The vessels which trade at the Channel Isl- 

 ands usually touch at Alderney last, and so were reported in 

 London as having arrived from that island with cows, which, 

 though really from Jersey, were thus called Alderneys. 



The island of Jersey, just alluded to, is in the English Chan- 

 nel, is about twelve miles long and six broad, containing about 

 forty thousand acres. The northern coast is a high, rocky 

 bluff, rising nearly four hundred feet from the sea, and then 

 gently sloping away to the south. It contains about sixty 

 thousand people, and is productive enough to maintain them. 

 In 1868, it was found that there were on this island six thou- 

 sand four hundred and twenty cows. The English have been 

 for sixty years drawing from this stock, and America for the 

 last twenty years. There is more of a mania to-day among the 

 rich men of England for the Jersey cow than there is in the 

 United States. The price now of a fine Jersey, which was once 

 about <£10, has gone up to £40 or .£50. The effect of this 

 continual drain has been a loss to the island of its best cows, so 

 that now the most competent judges admit that " better spec- 

 imens exist now in this country than can be found in the island 

 of Jersey, and that many herds in England are greatly superior 

 to any herds in Jersey." 



Now why is this desire for these expensive cows ? Is it all a 

 whim ? Is it only because of her beauty ? If such be the case, 

 England has been pursuing a shadow and a phantom for more 

 than sixty years. 



Mr. Morton, of Farmington, one of the most distinguished 



