FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



together with the excellence of their milk, render them favourites 

 where no remunerating return for their keep is expected or desired. 

 We own that we admire them ; but, perhaps, srme old associations in- 

 fluence our feelings. In proportion to the quantity of milk, the butter 

 yield is astonishing ; a single cow has been known to give iplb. of 

 butter weekly for several successive weeks. This, of course, is a very 

 rare and remarkable occurrence. The a/verage is from 61b. to 81b. or 

 Qlb. weekly during the season, supposing the cow to be first-rate of 

 her kind. The Alderney cattle are generally of a mingled white and 

 sajndy-red, or fawn color, the latter being mostly disposed in large, 

 abrupt patches." Since Martin's day vast improvements have taken 

 place, principally owing to the influence of the Jersey Association. 



Professor David Low says of the Channel Islands : " The islands 

 are four Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey, and Sark with their dependent 

 islets. The most northerly, and nearest to the coast of France, is 

 Alderney, which is well protected by its rocky shores and dangerous 

 currents. The most westerly is Guernsey, which is the least fertile 

 in soil ; and the smallest is Sark, which consists of a beautiful table- 

 land, scarcely accessible from the sea, and capable of being defended 

 by a handful of men. The largest, richest, and most populous is Jer- 

 sey, lying about six leagues from the coast of France. When viewed 

 more near all the surface of the country is seen to be intersected with 

 innumerable banks of earth, covered with trees, and verdant with t he- 

 leaves of bushes and the creeping ivy. There are the divisions of the 

 numberless little fields and possessions o-f the inhabitants, into which, 

 as an effect of the old, Norman law of succession, enforcing an equal 

 division of land amongst the children of a family, the whole country 

 has veen partitioned. All the practices of rural industry in these, 

 islands are modified by this ancient institution. The people cultivate 

 cider as the principal subject of export, and fruits of different kinds ; 

 and in an especial manner, lucerne, clover, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, 

 turnips, and cole, for 'food for their cattle. They cultivate, likewise. 

 peas, and the cereal grains, and reap abundant returns. Their land 

 never lies fallow for a season, but, is either in patches of fertile 

 meadow, kept constantly yielding crops in the manner of a garden. 

 They manure it with the marine plants which grow in great abund- 

 ance over all their rocky shores. The sea plants thus collected they 

 term 'Vraic,' and used either fresh or burned. The periods and the 

 mode of gathering it are nicely regulated by the insular laws, so that 

 a,ll the people may equally partake of this natural gift of the sea. 



" The cattle of the several islands are essentially the same among the 

 island farmers. They are penned on a narrow space, and shifted to fresh 

 spots of herbage several times in one day, and in the nights of winter 

 she is warmly housed, and, when about to ca/lve, is nourished with 

 cidor. Throughout all the year these little cows are to be seen in 

 their patches of meadow, often under the shade of the apple tree, and 

 so fastened that they cannot raise their heads to pull the fruit. In 

 addition to their herbage, they are fed with lucerne, clover, carrots, 

 parsnips, and the large Jersey cole, the leaves of which are stripped 

 off as they grow. A value is here attached to the cow greater, per- 

 haps, than in any other part of Europe. She is the resource of the 

 household for food, and her surplus produce is a part of the returns 

 of every farm. 



"The cows of Jersey in a special degree are the subjects of this care, 

 but those of Guernsey deviate from the common type, and present u 

 greater affinity with the races of Normandy, the individuals having 

 more spreading horns, the size being larger, and the form rounder, 

 and the bones less prominent than in the cattle of the other Islands. 

 The true Guernsey has a great re-einblanee t;> certain breedx of Nor- 

 way, which leads to the conclusion that, in the intercourse with the 

 North, which followed the subjugation of Nomandy and its depen- 

 dencies, Scandinavian cattle \\ere introduced into the Islands of the 

 Channel." 



134. 



