THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



821 



upon which these figures have been 

 based, or six quarts a day, we have !)0 

 gallons of milk to account for, equivalent 

 to 1 lb. 3 ozs. of butter per day, and 80 

 gallons of skim milk. The milk will be 

 worth i;5s. -Id. and the butter .£4 15s., so 

 that adding £5 8s. id, to £i;5 10s., we get 

 £18 18s. Id., which might easily be con- 

 verted into £oO or more on the valuation 

 of the calf. I have endeavoured to deal 

 with hard facts, and to suppress any sug- 

 gestion of possibilities which may not 

 become actual. 



It may be pointed out that one swallow 

 does not make a summer, and that be- 

 cause one cow has produced such a yield, 

 it does not follow that others could be 

 found to do likewise. But, as a matter of 

 fact, there have been many cows which 

 have exceeded this yield in a day, and in 

 the same competition a cow was awarded 

 the bronze medal, which gave precisely 

 ;he some yield of butter at the end of I'M 

 days after calving, and this butter was 

 extracted from no less a quantity than 

 38| lbs. of milk. Again, and this new 

 fact shows the wonderful power of a 

 Jersey in the production of rich milk, a 

 cow named Violette, at the end of 220 

 days, produced 26^ lbs., which yielded 2 

 lbs. 4^ ozs. of butter, thus showing a ratio 

 of llf lbs of milk to 1 lb. of butter. It 

 can scarcely be credited that a pound of 

 butter was actually present in but little 

 more than a gallon of milk. Yet, although 

 this was the lowest ratio, there were two 

 other cows which produced milk of 

 almost equally good quality ; one of these, 

 at the end of 256 days, producing 1 lb. 

 12^ ozs., her ratio being 12-35. No doubt 

 milk is richer as cows approach calving, 

 but such quality is very seldom found. 

 Now this evidence, which might be sup- 

 ported with a great deal more of the same 

 kind, appears to me to prove beyond dis- 

 pute that just as these cows have been 

 produced by judicious selection and cross- 

 ing, so may the dairy farmer increase his 

 yield of butter, whether from the Jersey 

 or from any other breed, by adopting the 

 same process. Suppose, for example, 

 that an individual made a start with a 

 selected herd, his first calf being a bull, 

 the produce of such a cow as the animal 

 to which we have referred. Fancy's Rose, 

 and suppose, too, that he selected cows 

 for milking and market purposes ot 



similar quality. He might possibly be 

 required to pay very large sums for 

 prize takers like Fancy's Rose, but there 

 are other cows in existence, if anyone 

 takes the trouble to find them, and such 

 cows selected one by one, mated with the 

 bull in quiistion, or one of equally good 

 butter- making blood, would certainly 

 produce a large majority of milkers, upon 

 which the utmost reliance might be placed 

 for the production of ljutter. I remember 

 to have remarked to a friend, himself an 

 amateur farmer, that it was always wise 

 to be willing to pay £1 or £2 more for a 

 cow with a character as a milker, adding 

 that I was willing to do so myself. This 

 gentleman at once said, " Then I can tell 

 you where you can find just such a cow 

 as you believe in, if you are willing to 

 pay this extra price." Having been in 

 his possession at one time, the animal 

 was easily found, and purchased for a 

 pound or two *more than her market 

 value, with the result that at the end of 

 her second calving period she had yielded, 

 and during that single period, too, some 

 1,290 gallons of milk ; while her calves 

 not only sold well, but were much appre- 

 ciated by buyers. It will be proper to 

 add that they were not Jerseys. 



There is one matter in relation to this 

 question which always needs considera- 

 tion. Most of my more intimate dairy 

 farming friends make a practice of selling 

 their cows almost always without regard 

 to their milking value before they ap- 

 proach anything like old age. In a word, 

 they are sold with age on their right side, 

 that they might sell well. In order, there- 

 fore, to secure an extra pound or two in 

 money for the sale of beef, for this is 

 wha"; it mostly amounts to, thoroughly 

 reliable cattle are turned out of the herd, 

 and very often, in most cases indeed, un- 

 known cows are brought into their places. 

 How is it possible to breed with success 

 under such conditions ? The owner of 

 large cattle rejects the suggestion of the 

 breeder of Jerseys that a good cow is 

 worth keeping. His chief argument is 

 that the Shorthorn and other large milk- 

 ing breeds possess a carcase value under 

 all conditions until they became old, and 

 so long as they at e healthy, but that the 

 Jersey seldom has an carcase value worthy 

 of considfc ration, and none at all when 

 she becomes an aged cow. If we refer to 



