258 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 
to. perpetuate and accentuate distinctive qualities, and to 
the exclusion of all other cattle from the Island. The 
method of tethering, which has always prevailed on the 
Island, may have had its influence. 
An organized attempt was made to give a fixed beauty 
of form to the Jersey about 1835, when, says Colonel Le 
Couteur, a few gentlemen selected two beautiful cows 
with the best qualities as models. One was held to be 
perfect in her barrel and fore-quarters, the other equally 
so in her hind-quarters. From these two, a scale of points 
was laid down to be the rule for governing the judges at 
the cattle shows of the Jersey Agricultural Society. 
At an early period, steps were taken to keep the breed 
pure by preventing outside cattle coming into the Island, 
and in 1763 an act was passed which has since been rigidly 
enforced, and supplemented by the further acts of 1789, 
1826, 1864 and 1878, prohibiting the landing of cattle on 
the Island except for the purpose of slaughter. Even 
before the enactment of laws, the purity of the cattle was 
maintained by the persistence with which the Jerseyman 
clung to his own breed. Every effort to introduce other 
cattle, even: from England, has been invariably rendered 
futile by the inhabitants. 
The Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural So- 
clety, organized in¥1833, has been one of the chief means 
of improving the general character of the breed on the 
Island, and of developing its valuable dairy qualities. In 
1836, the Society recommended that one superior bull be 
kept in each parish, and that encouragement be given to 
keep first-rate heifers in the Island, as the high prices 
offered were strong temptations to export them. In 
1838, it enacted at least two new rules. One was to the 
effect that any person withholding the services of a prize 
