ON EARLY CESTRUM IN ALDERNEY COWS. 
By Mr. W. Clarke, Importer of Alderney Cows, 
Southampton. 
Having read with interest the numerous articles which have 
appeared in The Veterinarian on the early parturition of 
cows, I beg leave to state, that the earliest periods, and named 
as “ extraordinary,” are very frequent in the Alderney breed. 
On my first visit to Jersey (from whence they chiefly come), 
I noticed this striking property ; and on mentioning the subject 
some years since to that old and highly respectable dealer, 
Matthew Fowler, of Little Bushey, and asking his opinion as 
to the effect it would have on the duration of their qualities as 
milkers, he said that it appeared perfectly natural, and that he 
believed they retained their milking qualities quite as long as 
English cows, which is generally believed in the island. 
In proof of the correctness of this, among many other cases 
a friend of mine in this neighbourhood had an Alderney cow 
which produced a fine calf when some days less than fifteen 
months old ; and having kept my eye on her and her now nu- 
merous progeny up to the time of writing this article, I regret 
to find, on inquiry, she met with an accident a short time since, 
which caused her death, soon after giving birth to a fine calf, 
which made her seventeenth in less than sixteen years. Up to 
this period she had not sensibly declined in appearance or 
milk ; and had as lately as the last summer frequently made 
twelve pounds of butter per week. 
I have also noticed the same property, but not to such an 
extent, in the Ayreshire, my opportunities of observing them 
being limited. 
I have tried the experiment in two instances, of keeping 
Alderney heifers from the bull until two years old, in the hope 
of obtaining something superior ; but what I have gained in size 
and appearance I have lost in milk. In one instance at the 
second, and the other the third calving, they both declined so 
much as not to be worth keeping. These, however, may be 
unfortunate exceptions. I have now a third cow, which is as 
fine an one as ever I possessed, which I expect to calve in the 
last week in April ; but I am not more sanguine of her than the 
others. 
I always aim, if possible, for my young stock to calve about 
May ; experience having taught me that their qualities are more 
fully developed then than at any other season of the year; and 
this, I believe, has an important effect upon them ever after- 
wards as milkers. 
