The Guernsey Breed 41 



tinguished from those of the neighboring island by being remarkably 

 small and straight of back, with prominent sparkling eyes." 

 Quayle, writing in 1812, states : 



"The treasure highest in a Jerseyman's estimation is his cow. 

 She seems to be a constant object of his thoughts and attention, and 

 that attention she certainly deserves. In the summer she is staked 

 to the ground, but her position is shifted five or six times a day. 

 In winter she is warmly housed and fed with the precious parsnip. 

 When she calves she is regaled with toast and cider, the nectar of 

 the island, to which powdered ginger is added." 



Regarding the origin, he says : 



"The breed was derived from the contiguous continential coast, 

 yet it is not known that in any part the same breed is preserved in 

 equal purity." 



Regarding the color, Quayle writes : 



"The colour here is commonly red or white, occasionally what 

 is called cream coloured, or that colo.ur mixed with white. Some- 

 times they are black or black and white like the northwest high- 

 landers are black, with a dingy, brown-red ridge on the back and 

 about the nostrils of the same colour. They have all a good pile, 

 generally thin-skinned, and fatten soon. If in any point they are 

 universally deficient it is in being narrow in the haunch." 



Writing in 1834, H. D. Inglis is quoted by Air. Thornton 

 as having stated that greater attention had been bestowed on 

 the cattle of Guernsey than of Jersey, and his notions of the 

 Alderney were disappointing. "I found it, however," he said, 

 "everywhere admitted that there is little distinction between 

 the Alderney and best specimens of Jersey cattle. The Guern- 

 sey cow, though of the same breed, is a large animal." 



Mr. Thornton, in his article in the Royal Agricultural 

 Journal, Vol. 17, published in 1881, gives the following par- 

 ticulars regarding first impressions of the Jersey breed in Eng- 

 land : 



"Having thus endeavored to show the manner by which the 

 island breeders improved their native cattle, it is necessary to show 

 the progress which the breed has made in this country during the 

 present century. As far back as 1794 an experiment was tried in 

 Kent between a large, home-bred cow, doubtless a Suffolk, eight 

 years old, and an Alderney, two years old. 



"The cow in seven days gave 35 gallons of milk, which made 

 I0y2 pounds of butter; the Alderney, 14 gallons, which made 6^ 

 pounds, or more than double the amount of ounces of butter to the 

 gallon of milk. 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 100 annually) and whose breed now, by the 

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

 deer-like Jersey. 



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