l6o ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



THE JERSEY COW. 



John Boyd, Elmhurst, 111.: 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen-. I am placed in a 

 very awkward position to-night. In the first place, I am no 

 speaker, and in the second place, I did not expect to say any- 

 thing on the subject of Jerseys. There are other gentlemen, 

 set down for that subject, and I am merely put on as a make- 

 shift. 



You all know that the Jersey cow is a small cow. She 

 probably appears very much smaller to you to-night since you 

 have heard these immense milk records of the white and black 

 cow, but notwithstanding she is a small cow, she is also a butter 

 cow, and if I were to follow the lead of Mr. Powell and attempt 

 to read to you to-night the records of the Jersey cow for butter 

 I would keep you here all night and all day to-morrow. We 

 have volumes of them, here is one. I do not intend to read 

 them to-night. This is only one volume and every record con- 

 tained in these volumes exhibits fourteen pounds of butter or 

 over in seven days. 



Prejudice is a hard thing to fight against. Prejudiced judg- 

 ment beforehand, condemned without a trial. This is about the 

 position the Jersey cow occupied with the western farmer a few 

 years ago. I have a distinct recollection of attending agricul- 

 tural fairs in this state and neighboring states a short time ago, 

 a few years ago, when the prejudice of the farmer ran moun- 

 tains high against the little Jersey cow, but I am happy to say 

 I have lived to see the time when those prejudices are melting 

 away like the snow before the sun, in every family and in every 

 home where the little Jersey has been introduced. Notwith- 

 standing all this opposition to the Jersey cow, they have increased 

 so rapidly in number, that to-day there are in the United States, 

 between forty and fifty thousand registered Jersey cows, Heaven 

 knows how many Jersey grades. I have no prejudices myself 

 against the Holstein breed of cattle, Shorthorn breed of cattle, 



