213 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[J CITE, 
that, and counting the full time to her second 
calving. 
I am glad to be able to give the record of the 
foil herd of my neighbor, Mr. Andrew Robe- 
sou. Eight Herd-book Jerseys as follows: 
Age. 
Weight, 
April 23, ’73. 
5 years. 
5 years. 
4 years. 
4 years. 
7 years. 
8 years. 
4 years. 
5 years. 
805 lbs. 
820 lbs. 
JRosemary. 
790 lbs. 
Zoe Le Bas. 
830 lbs. 
740 lbs. 
910 lbs. 
Zillah. 
760 lbs. 
Cannie . 
1.050 lbs. 
Note. — Kosemary, Zillah, and Cannie are heavy 
with calf. 
These cows were well kept, and their milk 
was regularly weighed at each milking from 
the time their calves were removed until they 
were dried off, or until the percentage of cream 
was proven by the lactometer twice a month 
for the date of this report the whole time. The 
following is their performance: 
Name. 
Date of 
Beginning 
Record. 
Number of 
Days in 
Milk. 
Total Milk 
in 
Pounds. 
Daily Aver¬ 
age in 
Pounds. 
Averageper- 
centage of 
Cream. 
locket. 
April 10, ’72 
265 
506554 
19 n /ioo 
19.20 
Gala. 
Feb. 12, ’72 
370 
758054 
29 4 %oo 
16.87 
Kosemary. 
April 12, ’72 
252 
3069H 
12 >%oo 
19.05 
Zoe Le Bas.... 
April 23, ’72 
304 
4760 
15 c5 /ion 
10.40 
Silver Gray. 
May 2, ’72 
303 
6054 14 
19 98 /100 
15.37 
Alice. 
May 2, ’72 
300 
670654 
22 3 V, 00 
16.52 
Zillab. 
June 12, ’72 
262 
012254 
23 &7 /100 
11.49 
Cannie. 
July 9, ’72 
260 
5169 
19 43 /iM 
17.62 
Average of all. 
290 
5566 
19% 00 
10.04 
This is a perfectly reliable statement, based 
on accurate records, and made by a gentleman 
of character who has spared no pains to get the 
best cows of the breed, and to keep them in the 
very best manner. From an intimate personal 
knowledge of his herd, I do not hesitate to in¬ 
dorse his statements in all particulars. He 
uses cream in his family without stint, and has 
not been able to learn from actual trial how 
much butter his herd would make in a year. 
It would, however, be safe to calculate that, 
taking the year through, the cream from Jersey 
cows will make a pound of butter per quart. 
Mr. Thomas Horsfall, of England—the best 
authority on this subject—found, on two trials, 
that 15 quarts of cream yielded 24 3 / 4 ounces of 
butter per quart, and that 14 quarts of cream 
yielded 25 3 / 7 ounces per quart. His milk was 
set in shallow pans, and the cream would natur¬ 
ally dry out much more than in the lactometer; 
but this would not increase the rate from 16 
ounces to 25 ounces. In my own practice 
(using deep cans, which expose even less sur¬ 
face to the air than the lactometer docs), I find 
that one quart of cream will make more than 
one pound of butter. Now, Mr. Robeson’s 
berd gave, during an average period of 290 
days, 430 quarts of cream per cow, and “of 
the whole amount of cream he churned during 
the year 1,409.1 quarts, and made, therefrom, 
1,333! pounds butter. This shows a yearly 
average of 407 pounds butter per cow.” 
The story is a large one, and I am quite pre¬ 
pared to have those who do not know me caM 
it a tough one—but I believe it, nevertheless. 
At the same time, it is not an example that 
many can follow. The breeding herd at Ogden 
Farm won’t begin to equal it. Indeed, very 
few can afford the money, nor have they the 
intelligent skill required to get together eight 
Herd-book Jerseys of such excellence. These 
have been bought in Jersey and here, and bred 
and weeded out for years with an eye to secur¬ 
ing as nearly absolute perfection as has been 
possible within the time. That they will still 
further improve under their intelligent manage¬ 
ment is unquestionable. 
While the results of this instance of success¬ 
ful farming are beyond the probable reach of any 
“ordinary” farmer, it is none the less valuable as 
an example. In any well-regulated dairy in 
which only common cows are kept, I think that 
an average annual yield of one-half that of Mr. 
Robeson’s Jerseys, or 203 lbs., would be con¬ 
sidered very satisfactory, and this from cows of 
greater w r eight, and so requiring more food. 
The question arises: How can we make a fair 
beginning on the other half?—how get to 300 
lbs ? The answer involves a good many things, 
but it will depend more on the infusion of Jer¬ 
sey blood than on anything else. A half-bred 
Jersey is wry much better than a native, and a 
three-quarter-bred one is still better. One bull 
will suffice to inaugurate an improvement in a 
large herd, which in even two generations (or 
in six or eight years) will more than double the 
profit of the dairy. Even a small addition to 
the yield will double the profit, for it will cost 
no more to support the grades than the natives, 
the quality will be better (and the selling price 
higher), and none of the expenses will be mate¬ 
rially increased. 
In this connection it may be well to quote 
from the Jersey Herd Register the statement of 
Mr. Clias. M. Beach, of Hartford, Ct. (person¬ 
ally known to me as a careful and trustworthy 
observe:). He “ made a careful experiment 
with three pure Jersey cows, three grade cows, 
and three native cows, an experiment which 
was carefully conducted for a week. The ani¬ 
mals were in essentially the same condition, 
and were kept on the same food. Each lot 
averaged about the same time for calving. It 
was found that to make one pound of butter 
the following quantity of milk from each sort 
of cow was required: Three pure Jerseys, 64 
quarts; three grades, 84 quarts; three natives, 
11 quarts. According to this, a Jersey cow 
giving about 12 f quarts of milk per day, or a 
grade giving 1G£ quarts, would make as much 
butter as a native cow giving 22 quarts.” Of 
course, the grades must vary according to their 
proportion of Jersey blood. In Mr. Beach’s 
experiment, one was one-half Jersey, one three- 
quarters, and one seven-eighths. . 
Those who believe that the best Jerseys have 
the “ solid color and full black points” will not 
find their theories sustained by an examination 
of Mr. Robeson’s herd. I think he has not one 
animal of this character. He prefers the lighter 
fawns and grays, with some white, and his im¬ 
ported bull “Orange-peel,” which he himself 
selected in Jersey,was light fawn with consider¬ 
able white. At the same time, color is only a 
secondary object with him, and no promising 
heifer is sold until her milking quality has been 
proven. Mr. Thomas Mode}', who is one of the 
oldest and one of the very best Jersey breeders 
in New England, is now raising for his own use 
a bull that is fully one-third white. 
The solid color men will be glad, on the 
other hand, to know that the cattle which Col. 
R. M. noe recently sold at auction for very 
high prices—a nine-months-old bull for $560, 
and four cows respectively for $560, $640, $700, 
and $605—were mainly of their favorite mark¬ 
ing. This sale indicates that color brings the 
highest prices. Shall we then breed mainly for 
color? I decidedly shall not. The object is 
not a wise one, and to seek it because of tem¬ 
porary high prices is a prostitution of breeding 
that can not result in the good of the race nor 
in the good of the dairyman. The Jeaseys as 
a race are very valuable to the country, not be¬ 
cause of their conformity to a passing fashion, 
but because of their ability to yield a large pro¬ 
duct of good butter, and it is their value in this 
respect that must redound to the greatest event¬ 
ual profit of their breeders. Then again, on 
the mere score of beauty, I would be glad to 
have the very blackest of the black-point men 
see Mi - . Robeson’s cattle tethered on his lawn. 
They will answer this disputed question more 
convincingly than any writing can do. 
Much has been said and written about the 
best treatment of calves, and so many have ad¬ 
vised their immediate removal that we this 
spring ventured to try it. Out of four so treat¬ 
ed (all heifers, worth $100 each when they 
were dropped), one died before it was a week 
old, another is scouring so badly that we have 
but little hope of its recovery, and a third is 
ailing and weakly. We have had quite enough 
of this treatment, and shall return to our custom 
of leaving all calves with their mothers until 
they are at least three days old, and longer if 
necessary to start them fairly and vigorously on 
the road of life, a practice which has hitherto 
produced the most satisfactory results. 
I have also experimented—until I have re¬ 
gretted it—on another theory of some modern 
breeders of Jerseys—that is, to milk the cows 
quite up to the time of calving, if possible. In 
every case, I am convinced that real and proba¬ 
bly permanent injury has resulted. The idea 
advanced was that a Jersey cow has no other- 
purpose but to bring calves and to produce 
milk, and that she should be trained to the 
fullest and most persistent exercise of the lac¬ 
teal function. The subject has been presented 
to me so long and so persuasively, and by men 
whose opinion seemed so well worthy of respect, 
that I had come to more than half believe it, 
and have tried the experiment this spring with 
several animals. In every case there has been 
trouble with the udder, and thus far the flow of 
milk is less than it was after the previous calv¬ 
ing. The calves have not been materially- 
affected by it, but the mothers have been in 
every instance. Hereafter, we shall endeavor 
to dry off all of the cows a month before calving- 
Up to that time it is well to keep the milk flow¬ 
ing (if only a pint a day), and with Jerseys it is 
almost always easy to do this; but after that the 
milking should cease, and the udder should be 
allowed to become entirely empty of milk pre¬ 
paratory to the commencement of its new period 
of activity—“springing” regularly and natu¬ 
rally, and having no trace of the old love when 
it begins with the new. 
Another experiment we are now making, that 
will have more influence on the prosperity of 
the farm than any other could have (for the 
Labor question is become the most vital of all), 
Haubrich and his family have gone—gone to 
the West, that ultimate haven of all immigrat¬ 
ing Dcutschers—and the Dudeldorfers, whom I 
hunted up in Germany last autumn, are in¬ 
stalled in their place. How it will work, I don’t 
know. Thus far, it seems a very good combina¬ 
tion of new broom and young blood, and we 
hope for a continuance of the improvement; 
but one is apt often to sigh for the good old 
days when good American farm-hands worked 
contentedly for years on the same farm. 
