1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
171 
able. I have racked my brain incessantly to 
learn tbe cause, ami to devise seme treatment 
that will servo as a preventive, but thus far 
neillicr cause nor preventive have been found. 
We liave not as yet had very many cases, but 
one ease, v\ i h a thorough-bred cow valued at 
a very high price, is bad enough. We not onlj- 
lose the calf, but we also lose (for the time, at 
least) much of the value of the dam. In the 
Case of common cows, one that has aborted 
may be at. once dried off and fattened for the 
butcher, but with thorough-bred ones this can 
cot be done. Wo have to do our best to make 
them carry their next calves to maturity. If 
they once do this they arc safe. Thus far, I 
have had no second abortion by the same ani- 
mal, a; d I have tried to avoid it by adopting 
the plan suggested by Mr. C. L. Sharpless ; 
which is to keep the cow from the bull until 
the November following the abortion, or, if she 
has aborted later than July, until the second 
November following. Perhaps even December 
would bo better. The object is to have the 
foetus too young for the usual period of slinking 
(say-less than seven months old) when the cows 
are turned out to grass. They should then be 
put on good pasture, no unruly or quarrelsome 
animals should be allowed among them, and 
not too many should be put together. If, with 
all these precautions, they abort again, they 
may as well bo fattened at once — no matter 
how valuable they may have been. 
■ One thing seems clear, whatever may be the 
original cause of the disease, it is contagious, and 
the closest watch should be placed over the 
herd, whether in the stable or in the field, to see 
that any cow that shows indications of calving 
may be at once removed out of sight and hear- 
ing and smell of tbe rest of the herd. It would 
even be prudent not to allow a cow to calve at 
her full period in the presence of the others. 
Whether the birth has been premature or not, 
the dead calf and the after-birth should be 
buried in some place remote from them. No 
cow that has aborted should be returned to the 
fame stable with pregnant ones until at least a 
■month after the accident, for there is some un- 
known influence emanating from them which 
spreads the contagion. 
One of our two-year-old heifers, in calf for 
the first time, kept on a farm a mile away, and 
fed only on dry feed, has just aborted in her 8th 
month. In her case there was no possibility of 
the trouble having arisen in contagion — and un- 
less there was some ergotized grass in her hay, 
it is impossible to attribute her condition to 
anything she ate. 
Our dairy arrangements have been entirely 
successful and satisfactory throughout tbe whole 
winter, and I do not longer hesitate to advise 
any farmer who is considering the improve- 
ment of his milk-house, and of his system of 
setting milk for cream to adopt the same plan 
that wc arc using. I am confident it is better 
for both winter and summer than any other 
now known. The " deep-can" part of the sys- 
tem lias been sufficiently described and illus- 
trated in previous numbers of the Agriculturist, 
and I will, at an early day, prepare diagrams of 
the beating apparatus, which enables us to fol- 
low up the same system throughout the winter, 
and with better results than I have before been 
able to secure. 
One of our unavoidable mishaps was the se- 
rious breaking of the windmill in the depth of 
winter. This showed us the value of a mechan- 
ical power for raising water. The tank in the 
milk-house had to be filled by band, from a well 
near try, often enough to keep the water sweet. 
This was not so very serious, but to haul water 
from a brook half a mile away to water <30 head 
of stock was so, and I hope we may never again 
have such an inordinate labor put upon us. 
Bad as it. was. it was better than to have turned 
the cattle out of their warm quarters to go that 
distance in the cold. 
The field laid down to grass in 1871 looks 
very well. Wo left upon it last fall a long fog 
(aftermath for winter cover), and the grass is 
now — April 3d — shooting strongly. As soon as 
the ground is well settled we shall give it a 
dressing of about I.jO lbs. per acre of the Man- 
hattan Company's Pliospliatic Blood Guano — 
to be applied during damp or falling weather, 
and after the first cutting it will receive about 
one ton per acre of Fish Guano. Something 
also after the second cutting. During the win- 
ter, some spots on which the grass was thin 
were dressed with horse manure from thesheds, 
and this will be dragged down with a chain or 
a Thomas harrow. 
Tho Jersey Cow at Home. 
BT GS0RG5 B. WARINO, JR., 05* OQDKK FARM 
I have just made a visit of a week to the Is- 
land of Jersey, and I have seen the Jersey cow 
on her native heath. 
The farmers of Jersey have learned how to turn 
her to even more satisfactory profit than we have. 
That is to say, where they keep cows exclusively 
for the dairy, they achieve a better result than 
any one in America with whose dairy I am ac- 
quainted. The great, fertility of their soil gives 
them one advautagc, and the mildness and 
uniformity of their climate another ; but 
still more is due to the enormous extent to 
which they feed roots. Hay seems to form an 
insignificant part of their winter food. They 
use straw much more largely, and have a fair bite 
of grass all the winter through. They depend very 
much on a plentiful supply of turnips and par- 
snips. Indeed, so far as I could judge, these roots 
are the sheet-anchor of Jersey dairy-farming. 
The farms arc small, rarely, I think, exceeding 
40 acres, and very often not over the half of 
that. The team force of each farmer is very 
small, but they club together for what is called 
" the big plow," and do each other's plowing, on 
a social plan similar to our " corn-huskings." 
If root-culture is their sheet-anchor, deep plow- 
ing gives them good anchorage. When land i3 
to be prepared for a crop of parsnips, it is trench- 
plowed, and completely reversed, -to a depth of 
fully 15 incites (and often 18 inches), and then 
such dressings of manure are used as would do 
credit to a market-gardener. In this way, a 
small farm is made to carry a large stock, tho 
large stock furnishes man urn for increasing pro- 
duction, and tbe cows partake of tho generous 
richness of the soil audgivc a rich and abundant 
yield themselves. 
This remark applies more strictly to the older 
cows. A more magnificent lot of motherly, big- 
bellied, big-uddered, rich-skinned cows can no- 
where be found than could be collected by the 
hundred in Jersey. They are of the race that 
has made the reputation of this famous breed. I 
do not exaggerate when I say that I firmly be- 
lieve that if the present fashion prevails this race 
will soon become extinct. A few years ago 
these cat tie were bred solely for butter. Color and 
form were scarcely thought of. The result was 
a class of cattle that the world has never equaled 
for the dairy simply. Then there arose two 
influences which have done some harm and 
will do much more. 
1. The desire to convert the/erm of the animal 
to the standard which has been cultivated in 
England by the Shorthorn. I was shown tin 
prize bull of 1873. lie was a miniature Slu rt- 
liorn, much fatter than a butter-dairy bull should 
ever be. Once give the breed the tendency to 
lay up fat in its flesh, and you may bid good-by 
to fat in the milk; as the one tendency increases, 
the other must decrease. I would as soon think 
to breed beef-stock by using a raw-boned, deep- 
flanked dairy bull-, as to breed butter stock by 
using one who showed a tendency to lay on fat 
in his carcass. Of course, no perceptible harm 
will come of using such a bull fora single cross, 
but the longer the process is continued, tho 
more fixed will the pernicious tendency become. 
Further evidence that "fat" is being too much 
cultivated is to bo found in tho fact that I wa8 
not shown a single cow in what I considered 
the right state of flesh for milk, whose owner 
did not apologize for her poor condition. Seve- 
ral farmers said they would not exhibit their 
cows at the June exhibitions, because they 
would have no chance for a prize unless they 
were fatter than it was safe to have them for 
summer calving. It wiil be hard to combat 
this error, for the Jerseymau is a very loyal 
Englishman, and if fat cattle are in fashion in 
England, lean ones will not be in Jersey. Yet it 
would be well if we could, in some way. to induce 
the owners of this breed at its fountain-head tore- 
turn (so far as the question of fat is concerned) 
to the standard of the old stock that we im- 
ported fifteen years ago, and that is still well 
represented among tbe older cows in Jersey. 
In the mean lime, let not the mote in our own 
eye grow to a beam. We are not, ourselves, en- 
tirely free from the mania for "form." A straight 
rump is pretty, and it is even very desirable, 
but before we dispose of a heifer with a sloping 
rump, let us be very sure what she carries be- 
low it. We may lose an udder that would have 
made the fortune of our herd. Above all, let 
us beware of fat. We want a blooming condi- 
tion, and flesh enough for vigorous health, but 
whatever is more than this cometh of an evil 
tendency to rob the milk of its cream. 
2. Much more important than this desire.for 
fine form, is the fancy for color. It is playing 
the very mischief with the breed, and no cine 
knows it better than tho very farmers who are 
catering to it. They are (and not quite uncon- 
sciously) killing the goose that is laying their 
golden eggs. Of tho best fifty cows that I saw 
in Jersey, not five were of the solid gray color 
(black points, etc.), fully twenty-five of them 
had white enough to condemn them in the 
"fancy" market, and nearly all had what 
would be considered an objectionable amount. 
Every farmer with whom I spoke sneered at 
the idea that solid color was an advantage, but 
Ihey ail said they must breed for their market. 
They all confessed that in so breeding they were 
marching on the direct road to inferior milking 
One said, "I keep 6 cows, 3 good ones for the 
kitchen, and 3 gray ones to sell calves from." 
But even this will not save him. Ten years 
Jience he may not find, in all Jersey, a really 
good bull to breed from. I did not see one 
bull-calf being raised that had not been se- 
lected solely for its color — which means that in 
a few generations of neglect the dairy quality 
must run itself out. Neither did I happen to ask 
after the calf of any superb milker without learn- 
