THE PECULIARITIES OF BREED. 



deformities have been cultivated designedly, and made to grow up 

 side by side with the good properties, until the task of parting the 

 bad from the good has become too great lor any ordinary Breeder 

 to attempt. 



We may seriously ask whether the element of fancy is not too 

 strong in the judgment of some breeders of our most important 

 kinds of dairy cattle; whether it does not sometimes induce breeders, 

 either from individual preference, or more commonly, as followers 

 of fashion, to reject some of their best animals for non-conformity 

 with the demands O'i fancy or fashion, and to retain inferior animals 

 for their conformity to those demands. It is one thing to recognise 

 distinctive marks of breed, another to narrow the range of variation 

 so as to impose injurious restrictions upon the liberty of breeders 

 in their selections and matings of their stock. In this respect the 

 polled character of some of our breeds of cattle, must not be classed 

 among the deformities effected to please the caprice of fancy, as 

 it has in some circumstances the recommendation o.f valuable ad- 

 vantage. When cattle have to travel much, especially by rail, or 

 driven in large numbers, they are obviously in less risk of painful 

 and damaging accident if they have no horns among them. On the 

 other hand, horn is a useful article of commerce and manufacture, 

 and as there are markets in which it is demanded, so, no doubt, there 

 are countries in which horn-growing cattle will not be given up in 

 favour of the polled breeds. Apart from its commercial value, a 

 beautiful horn is one of the chief ornaments of a dairy cow, besides, 

 it indicates much in her breeding. 



To revert to the origin of cattle once more : It is not definitely 

 known from whence the Jersey Breed sprung. They certainly were 

 not imported -from, "Britany, where the cattle are mostly black and 

 white. Probably they came from Normandy, before the days of 

 King John. As an eminent writer puts it: "An Englishman accus- 

 tomed to look upon the Channel Islands as dependencies, is some- 

 what staggered when he first hears from a 'Jersey-man' that the re- 

 lationship ought to be the other way about; for it was not England 

 that conquered the Channel 'felands, but the Channel Islands that 

 conquered England. At the conquest they were part of Normandy, 

 and as Normans their Barons took their levies to form part of Duke 

 William's army. When John lost Normandy, the islands remained 

 true to the British Crown. John, the great charter-giver, under, 

 compulsion, went over there in a hurry, and as he had made things 

 pleasant at Runnymede. so did he there. He gave us a charter; 

 he gave -the islands a greater charter: 'The palladium of Channel 

 Island liberty, etc.,' as per the history book. That charter is still 

 the basis of their liberties. Since then the Channel Islands have 

 been the most anti-French subjects of the Crown, even now no 

 Frenchman can hold land in Jersey under any circumstances what- 

 ever, and as to cattle being admitted from the French coast, why, 

 not only would the cattle be slaughtered as they landed, but the very 

 ships would be seized, and their captains fined 200 each. There 

 is no reason assigned for this extraordinary outbreak oi hatred by 

 the people of the channel against the French, as a nation. Cer- 

 tainly, it was not on account of their cattle, as the mainland of 

 France was then very rich in cattle. 



As it has just been suggested that probably the "Jersey" is of 

 Norman origin, it may not be out of place to give a descripion of 

 that highly important breed of cattle. The Norman is one oi the 

 oldest existing races of domesticated cattle, yet very little is known 

 of its great milking qualities outside its native heath. The leading 

 characteristics of Norman cattle are: Great size of body, with me- 

 dium-sized bone, long head, fine horns, usually bent downwards and 



217. 



