1884.] 
AMEEICAlSr AGEIOULTUEIST. 
321 
Guernsey Cattle. 
Some of our readers may not know that Chan¬ 
nel Island cattle, which used always to he called 
Alderney cattle, are really of two distinct breeds. 
Those native to the Island of Jersey, are called 
Jerseys, and the rest are Guernseys—even those 
of the Island of Alderney. The latter island 
never has produced any number of fine cattle, 
and its name unfortunately was given to the 
Channel Island cattle by a mere accident. At one 
time England was making a great fortified harbor. 
Hundreds of vessels were going and coming to and 
from Alderney, and because they could get no re¬ 
turn loads from that rocky little island, they went 
to the larger ones of the group, and whatever they 
brought, potatoes, butter, cabbages, cauliflovvers 
(for which the islands are famous), or cattle, all 
were supposed to come from Alderney. This led 
to the application of the name, Alderney, to all 
the Channel Island cattle. The name remains, and 
is a good one to apply to any Jersey or Guernsey 
cattle which forlack of pedigree cannot be register¬ 
ed in the Jersey herd-book or are of mixed blood. 
These cattle, the Guernseys, not less than the 
Jerseys, have proved themselves hardy, prolific, 
adapted to all countries, and admirable as family 
cows, and producers of the choicest butter. The 
Guernsey cow has not as yet figured so notably in 
the fashionable circles as has her cousin of the ad¬ 
jacent island. She is not credited with the same 
sylph-like delicacy of figaire, or gazelle-like style. 
Her merits are of a more homely and useful order. 
She is heavier, and while a great milk and butter 
producer, has the quality of converting feed either 
into milk and butter, or into admirable beef, as 
the occasion may require. Her butter is much 
higher colored than the average of Jersey cows. 
So intense, indeed, is the color, that the presence 
of one Guernsey in a herd of six or eight common 
cows, or of eight or ten Jerseys, will give an agree¬ 
able tint to the butter all winter, provided there is 
proper variety in the feed supplied to her. The 
quantity of butter she is able to produce, is as yet 
undetermined. Some cows within our knowledge. 
Lave approached three pounds a day. Many are 
W’orthy of being in the “ fourteen-pound list,” if 
any such list has been, or is to be made. 
Jersey breeders from perhaps the earliest periods 
have enriched their strains of breeding by tlie occa¬ 
sional introduction of Guernsey blood. In fact, it 
is a conceded point that the variable richness of 
color possessed hy the Jerseys is largely due to a 
remote Guernsey cross. The variability in color. 
ample in point, we refer to the well-known cow 
Jersey Belle of Scituate, now dead. She was 
completely of the Guernsey build and color, witli 
perhaps slight shadings, which indicated Jersey 
blood. Her head and legs were delicate for a 
Guernsey, but not unlike many, and her butter, at 
least her grass-made butter, was yellow enough for 
a Guernsey. The cross of Guernsey and Jersey 
cattle will at any time produce just such cows in 
tions a characteristic, or else they are extraordi¬ 
nary sports of nature. If the qualities*are inherit¬ 
ed, as without doubt they are, tliey will be trans¬ 
mitted to the progeny of such cows. 
The breeder of Guernseys must therefore bear in 
mind that pedigree is the foundation of success. 
This pedigree must be written in butter. A few 
weeks ago, a famous Jersey bull was sold at auc¬ 
tion in this city, in the very high prime of his life 
' A --- .o , 
^AMeie.AGR); 
THE GTJEKNSET BULL “lANCEK .”—Drawn (by Fories) and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
style and general form, while in the matter of yield 
of both milk and butter, wc have no doubt that 
among a lot of such cross-breeds, some w’ould ap¬ 
proximate even her extraordinary record. 
The proper development of this excellent, beau¬ 
tiful, and useful breed, and the responsibility of 
making it popular, rests with the breeders of the 
American Guernsey Cattle Club. They cannot ex¬ 
pect the breed to “ boom ” itself. No doubt there 
are families of extraordinary butter power—those 
ought to be found out and brought out. A few 
years ago it was enough for the lover of Jerseys to 
know that an animal he thought of buying was re¬ 
corded in the Register of tlie American Jersey Cat¬ 
tle Club. Now, though that registration is essential, 
it counts for very little in determining the value of 
GUERNSEY COW “VESTAL OP LARCHMOUNT .”—Drawn (hy Forhes) and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
ing, both in the skin and in the milk of Jerseys, 
plainly indicates a characteristic not thoroughly 
fixed in the breed. This color or “ richness,” as it 
is termed on the Islands, when highly developed in 
the more fashionable race, is so often associated 
with a rich, yellow-fawn, or yellow-fawn and white, 
or a positively light-red or red and white coat in 
Jerseys, that it offers another evidence that both 
are effects of the Guernsey cross. As a notable ex¬ 
a cow supposed to be worth more than a hundred 
dollars. The butter record of her ancestry, and 
of cows knowm to be of her immediate kindred, 
determines her market value to be two, four, or 
six hundred, or even many thousands of dollars. 
The same must be, and we predict it soon will be, 
the case with the Guernseys. The great yielders, 
like “ Elegante,” for instance, draw their blood 
from sources in wl.ich butter has been for genera¬ 
a sure getter, of magnificent form and size, of the 
most fashionable color, the most illustrious animal 
of his breed in the world as a prize winner, and of 
an illustrious ancestry as prize winners, not how¬ 
ever particularly famous as butter producers. 
Three years ago he sold for thirty-two hundred dol¬ 
lars. The breeders of the Island of Jersey felt his 
loss to the island so keenly that they sent over to 
buy him, but were out bid by an enterprising New 
York breeder. This year he sold for the low prices 
of one hundred and forty dollars, simply because 
so few of his daugliters, which have come to milk, 
prove of particular excellence as butter yielders, 
althougli they are one and all hard to beat in the prize 
ring. Butter is therefore the first consideration, both 
in the pedigree and in the individual if a female, and 
in his dam if a male, but above all in his daughters 
after he has come to maturit3^ A bull at tln'ee 
years old should have daughters in milk, the pro¬ 
ducing power of which can be tested. A two-year- 
old heifer, giving twenty to twenty-eight pounds- 
of milk a day, yielding ten to twelve pounds of 
butter a week, is good enough. Such are excep¬ 
tional, but they sometimes occur. 
Next to butter comes form. In milch cows of 
great capacity, we find a characteristic form pre¬ 
vails. This is not an indication of much butter, at 
least not an infallible indication, for many great 
milkers are only moderate, and occasionally small 
butter producers. Still it is a good thing in a cow to> 
be well formed for a milk yielder. This form has 
been cultivated, that is bred for, forj-ears in Guern¬ 
sey, and the best Guernsey cows now possess it. 
It is marked by a long body, much larger in the hind 
than in the fore-quarters, open ribs, a long, broad 
loin, wide, high hips, flat thighs, a deep flank, and 
a great expansible udder, with strong, tortuous 
milk-veins upon the belly and beneath the vulva. 
The favorite color for Guernseys is yellow-fawn 
with buff nose, yellow horns and hoofs. White 
spots are not objected to, and a white triangle in 
the forehead, and white switch are regarded as- 
characteristic. Well-grown Guernseys arc one to 
two hundred pounds heavier than average Jei'seys, 
and the larger ones often .approach the size of 
Shorthorns. Guernsey steers, or oxen, have oc¬ 
casionally been fattened to reach the weight of six¬ 
teen hundred to two thousand, or even two thou¬ 
sand two hundred pounds. Guernsey and half- 
