CHAP. i. JERSEY CATTLE. 65 



for the quantity of milk which they yield. Being graceful and deer-like 

 in form, they are prized by gentlemen, and gentlemen farmers, in 

 whose grounds they form a very attractive feature. The size of the 

 Jersey breed is small ; the colours most esteemed are the light silver- 

 grey, the brown, and the fawn ; brindled colours are very rarely met 

 with. The horns are short, and generally curled, and the bones fine. 

 The best milch-cows are observed to have a yellowish circle round the 

 eye, with the skin at the extremity of the tail of a deep yellow colour, 

 approaching to orange. As fattening cattle, they have but few good 

 points ; being thin and hollow in the neck, hollow and narrow 

 behind the shoulders, sharp and narrow on the bucks, light in 

 the brisket, and lean on the chine, with short rumps and small 

 thighs ; but their flesh is fine grained, high coloured, and of excellent 

 flavour. 



The Jersey cows yield the richest of milk ; and both on that account, 

 and because of a certain neatness in their appearance, notwithstanding 

 the defects in their shape, they command high prices. They are, there- 

 fore, largely in the possession of gentlemen ; though now they are 

 being widely disseminated amongst farmers, in some cases with the 

 object of raising the quality of the milk yielded by other breeds, when 

 the milk is all put together. Some of the most characteristic points 

 of Jersey cows and heifers, as recorded in the Jersey Herd-book, are 

 the following : Muzzle dark, and encircled by a light colour (" mealy 

 mouthed ") Horns small, crumpled ; yellow, and black-tipped. Ears 

 small, thin, of a deep yellow colour within. Chest broad, deep. Hide 

 thin, mellow, and of a yellow colour. Teats yellow. Hair fine, 

 soft. 



In his paper upon " Jersey Cattle and their Management" (Journal 

 of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, vol. xvii., second series, 1881), 

 Mr. John Thornton says : " In writing the history of the Jersey cow 

 in this country, it is difficult to distinguish between the Jersey and the 

 Guernsey, and even the Brittany ; for all the Channel Islands cattle 

 bore the common name of Alderney, an island that supplies a very 

 small number (scarcely a hundred annually), and whose breed now, by 

 the use of Guernsey bulls, has become larger and coarser than the fine 

 deer-like Jersey. The difference, too, between the Jersey and Guernsey 

 has become very much more marked of late years, both in size and 

 colour, and particularly the head, horns, and nose. The Jersey is the 

 smaller animal, finer in its limbs, neater in its frame, and more 

 thoroughbred-looking in appearance ; the horns are thinner and more 

 crumpled, the face finer, slightly concave, and more docile and 

 intelligent in appearance ; the eye is bright, black, often with a white 

 rim, and the muzzle intensely black, also with a light-coloured rim round 

 it. This is one of the most striking differences between the Jersey 

 and Guernsey, the latter having usually a flesh-coloured or stained 

 nose, and a lightish yellow and white body, being larger of stature, and 

 coarser of limb. The yield of milk, too, is larger in the Guernsey, yet 

 there is little, if any, difference in the yield of butter; indeed, some 

 contend that the Jersey will yield more butter, and is a smaller 



