On the Jersey, misnamed Alderney, Cow. 
47 
Tlic Jersey cow is a singularly docile and gentle animal ; the 
male, on the contrary, is apt to become fierce after two years of 
age. In those bred on the heights of St. Ouen, St. Brelade, and 
St. Mary, there is a hardiness and sound constitution that enables 
them to meet even a Scotch winter without injury ; those bred in 
the low grounds and rich pastures are of larger carcase, but are 
more delicate in constitution. 
Of the ancient race it was stated, perhaps with truth, that it 
had no tendency to fatten ; indeed some cows of the old breed 
were so ungainly, high-boned, and ragged in form, Megs Merrilies 
of cows, that no attempt to fatten them might succeed — the great 
quantities of milk and cream which they produced probably ab- 
sorbing all their fattening properties. 
Yet careful attention to crossing has greatly remedied this 
defect. By having studied the habits of a good cow with a little 
more tendency to fatten than others, and crossing her with a 
fleshy well-conditioned bull of a race that was also known to 
produce quality and quantity of butter — the next generation has 
proved of a rounder form, with a tendency to make fat, without 
having lost the butyraceous nature. 
Some of these improved animals have fattened so rapidly while 
being stall-fed, from the month of December to March, as to 
suffer in parturition, when both cow and calf have been lost ; to 
prevent which it is indispensable to lower the condition of the 
cow, or to bleed, in good time. Such animals will fatten rapidly. 
Their beef is excellent ; the only defect being in the colour of 
the fat, which is sometimes too yellow. It is now a fair question, 
whether the improved breed may not fatten as rapidly as any 
breed known ? 
Quayle, who wrote the 'Agricultural Survey of Jersey,' states 
"that the Ayrshire was a cross between the short-horned breed 
and the Alderney." 
There is a considerable affinity between these two breeds. 
The writer has noticed Ayrshire cows that seemed to be of Jersey 
origin, but none of them were said to have produced so large a 
quantity of cream or butter ; nor was the butter in Scotland of 
nearly so deep a tinge of yellow as the most rich in Jersey. One 
Jersey cow that produces very yellow cream will give a good 
colour to butter produced from two cows affording a pale-coloured 
cream. 
It is not doubted that crosses from the Jersey breed have taken 
place. Field-Marshal Conway, the governor of this " seques- 
tered isle," as Horace Walpole termed it, and Lieutenant-General 
Andrew Gordon, who succeeded him, nearly half a century back, 
both sent some of the best cattle to England and Scotland. If 
