238 
Jersey Cattle and their Management. 
air, remind one of Devonshire. Nothing strikes the stranger 
sooner than the pretty short-legged, dark-faced, k)ng-tailed cows 
grazing with a rope tied round their horns and fastened about 
half a dozen yards off to a peg driven into the ground. This is 
the tethering system for which the Island is so famous. It 
doubtless originally arose from the small size of the farms, 
some of the largest being only about 20 acres in extent. Every 
piece of available land is cultivated, and banks divide the little 
fields, in which may be frequently seen strips of corn, parsnips, 
carrots, potatoes, and cabbages growing side by side, as well as 
clover and rye-grass. The orchard is generally close by, and 
there the cows are usually tethered in rows of five or six, accord- 
ing to the size of the orchard and number of stock, for rarely are 
more than eight or ten cows kept on a farm. So clean and close 
is the rich grass eaten that it has the appearance of being roughly 
mown, and as a patch is eaten the cows are shifted on a few 
yards four or five times a day. Liquid manure is applied to 
the grazed portions, so that by the time the cows have reached 
the bottom of the field, the grass at the top is ready for them to 
be tethered on again, so quick and luxuriant is the growth. Of its 
economy there can be no question, as the grass is not trampled, 
and good and bad are alike eaten. The animal, too, remains 
docile, and two of them can easily be led by a young girl ; 
women usually tend and milk the cows and feed the calves. 
This docility is early acquired, for the calves are very soon 
tied with halters and led. Bull calves for veal are sometimes 
allowed to suck, but generally the calves are fed by hand from 
the day of their birth with new milk for a fortnight. The 
heifer calves then get sour or skimmed milk thrice a day. On 
some farms for the first month the dam's milk is given diluted 
with boiling water. At the end of two or three weeks they will 
receive sour milk with bran ; when able to eat, in about six 
weeks, they get hay with pulped roots and chaff, and a little 
meal. Grass is cut and laid before them in spring and summer ; 
the skimmed milk is gradually reduced, and by some breeders 
is superseded by steeped linseed, until, at five or six months old, 
they are allowed to run out, and on the small occupations 
tethered. In Guernsey buttermilk and hay-tea are given with 
good effect to calves up to six or seven months old. Many 
breeders do not serve their best heifers until they are eighteen 
months old, but if any are well grown they are put-to earlier. 
The greatest care is bestowed on the cow before and at calving. 
She is treated most kindly, and carefully dried from four to six 
weeks before calving, which usually takes place in January, Feb- 
ruary, or March. She is fed moderately with straw and a little 
hay, and bran-mashes, barley-meal, or linseed are given to keep 
