Brittantj Cows. 
213 
21'00. These statistics will, we trust, tend to rcmoVe the doubts 
which have existed in the minds of many pei'sons on a question 
of so much importance as the production of food for general 
consumption. 
4, Argyle Square, St. Fancras, London. 
XIII. — Some Account of Brittany Cows. Taken from Notices by 
M. Jamet, of Rennes, By P. H. Frere. 
Since this race has been examined with interest in the large 
classes exhibited at Battersea, and not only have specimens been 
purchased by wealthy proprietors as a matter of curiosity, but 
also dairies set up by those who live by the sale of milk in 
the environs of London, it may be worth while to inquire into 
the estimation in which it is held in its own country. 
Two notices, written by M. Jamet for the ' Journal d'Agricul- 
ture Pratique,' point out how far that national organ of scientific 
agriculture justifies or qualifies provincial predilections. We 
will, then, borrow from that source such remarks on tiiis subject 
as seem most adapted to the English reader. 
This race appears to be valued not so much for the quantity 
of milk which it yields as for the quantity and quality of the 
butter. That it was not highly esteemed in old time is evident 
from early efforts made to improve it by a cross ; recently it has 
been crossed successfully with the shorthorn, and to no good 
effect by the Ayrshire bull. It is emphatically the poor man's 
cow, and it mav be well to consider what that title implies. As 
to colour, the black and white race which prevails in Morbihan 
now mostly sets the fashion, and is the common representative of 
the breed ; but the red and white stock of Cornouaille have the 
same origin and type, and' the colour is occasionally interchanged. 
The merit chiefly insisted upon is the quality, colour, and 
especially the JIavoiir of the butter. M. Jamet asserts that this, 
Avhich is a nutty flavour, is quite independent of the herbage or 
fodder consumed by the animal, and that it is retained in the 
produce of crossbred stock' to the third or fourth cross. The 
existence of this peculiar flavour seems to be generally admitted, 
but some refer it to a peculiarity in the soil affecting its produce, 
even when such keep as clover or cabbages is substituted for the 
common pasturage. 
The author, travelling with a strong advocate of this latter 
theory in the adjacent province of La Vendee, espied some 
Brittany cows on the lawn of the friend they were about to visit,. 
