THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



127 



tile-drained 3^ feet in depth, but the distances between the drains vary. The cow- 

 house is situated on the north side of a hill, but so high that the sun shines on it all 

 day, from the time it rises till it sets. The ridge upon which the farm is is supposed 

 to 'be the prettiest but coldest spot between London and Brighton. As the crow flies, 

 I am about 12 miles from the sea, and, with a southwest gale, salt is often driven with 

 it, and the windows thereby are streaked with the salt. I look on the Guernsey as a 

 better animal all round than the Jersey. It is hardier, and I have only lost one, and 

 that through cancer, which it had in the heart. The Guernsey gives more milk, and 

 it is equally rich, and when done with sells for more to the butcher. I sold at open 

 market, where Sussex and Shorthorns are the usual run of beast, a five-year-old Guern- 

 sey, which slipped her calf a fortnight before, for 18.5s. Jerseys in that case fetch 

 from 5 to 9. I have sold others at 15 to 18. They do not fatten easily, but they 

 always cut up far better than they look; in fact, where a Shorthorn looks fat outside, 

 a Guernsey is fat inside. 



My cattle are all housed in a large, well-ventilated cow-shed from October or No- 

 vember, according to weather, till there is a good bite of grass in the spring. On 

 grass they get per day each about 1 pound of decorticated cotton cake. The year- 

 lings run out all winter, but have a shed where they can go to, and in winter-time 

 they get for food oat straw, and from 1-J to 2 pounds of linseed cake and locust beans 

 in equal proportions. 



The cows are fed 3 times a day. In the morning and evening they receive each 

 hay and straw (oat) chaffed with pulped roots, all steamed, with 1 pound of mid- 

 dlings and 1 pound of maize meal mixed with it, and in the middle of the day they 

 get hay and straw chaff with pulped roots, not steamed. In addition I give them, 

 according to the milk they are giving, from 1 to 4 pounds of cake a day, of decorti- 

 cated cake and $ linseed, heifers with their first calf only Laving linseed. I test the 

 milk from time to time, and the average of cream is about 15 per cent. ; theloweat, and 

 which only one cow gave, being 13 per cent., whilst the highest was 18 per cent.; but 

 15 per cent. I calculate is a fair average. I calve my heifers down at any time from 

 21 months. 



The fault I find with Guernseys is in their bony and angular rump and shortness 

 from hip bones to tail. I am trying to improve this, but find it difficult to get bulls 

 to please me. In addition, a great many have the tail sticking up too high. These 

 things are what make a Guernsey look so thin, and it is hard to cover these angulari- 

 ties with flesh. I am in hopes, however, that I shall speedily improve these points, 

 as I have a very good bull of my own breeding, and I shall put him to his own daugh- 

 ters and with their progeny breed out again. I only once tried a test with regard to 

 butter, and that with not nearly my best cow. She had calved6 weeks before, and had 

 just returned from a. show and was not milking well, but I wanted to make a rough 

 guess at what a Guernsey could do. She made 9f pounds of butter in 7 days from 83 

 quarts of milk. I have only known of one steer being fattened, but ho made a nice 

 beast, and was sold when 3 years old, in the beginning of December, 1883. He real- 

 ized 23, and as butchers around here are very prejudiced, and will only look at Sus- 

 sex and Shorthorns, I did not consider it a bad price. 



The following are particulars of my herd as submitted : 



| Production by quarts.] 



*15 quarts. t!3 quarts a day. J9i quarts a day. 11J quarts a day. |] 10 quarts a day. 



