lighter and more graceful Jerseys ran in their herds. 
The Guernsey men passed the strictest laws—abso¬ 
lutely prohibiting the importation of breeding ani¬ 
mals. The ship that landed such an animal was to be 
forfeited, with imprisonment of master and crew. 
The result was that the Guernseys remained as pure 
as any breed known. They continued to be bred in a 
careful and conservative way, with the single idea of 
producing a strong and quiet cow capable of extract¬ 
ing a large percentage of the fat in her food, and giv¬ 
ing to it a high color. 
Naturally, the Jersey was developed into a more 
nervous and high-strung animal, because this was 
what the first buyers demanded. You might take 
two brothers—send one to a great city and the other 
to a quiet farm. Let their descendants for two gen¬ 
erations be brought up around them. The country 
grandchildren will be quite unlike those reared in 
THE GUERNSEY! A BUTTER BREEDER . 
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BREED. 
Where It Came From ; What It Is Good For. 
It is pretty well understood by all who know any¬ 
thing about cattle, that the Jersey and Guernsey 
breeds were developed on certain islands in the Eng¬ 
lish channel. It is also understood that they belong 
to a class of animals that are noted chiefly for their 
ability to yield milk exceedingly rich in highly col¬ 
ored butter fats. So closely have breed distinctions 
been drawn, that no person of ordinary common sense 
honestly expects to obtain a big carcass of beef, or an 
immense flow of milk from the “Channel Island” 
cattle. They have been bred in the most careful and 
thorough manner with this one idea of butter 'produc¬ 
tion in view. Most people, however, are prone to 
confuse the two butter breeds, and imagine that 
J er s ey s and 
Guernseys are 
one 
will give better results on the care usually given the 
working dairy cow. She is less nervous and not so 
easily thrown “off her feed.” The Guernsey will 
surely give a higher color to her butter. The average 
Guernsey will, we think, equal, if not excel, the 
average Jersey in amount and quality of milk from a 
dollar’s worth of food. Tests have been made between 
the breeds, but they have either been contests be¬ 
tween individuals or selected small herds, and, there¬ 
fore, do not give a basis for exact comparisons. To 
sum the matter up, the Guernseys are a breed of 
tough, large, quiet animals that have been quietly 
bred for many years with one single object in view— 
viz., the pro¬ 
duction of the 
- • . ■-.: -^ 5 | greatest quan¬ 
tity of highly- 
colored butter 
from a dollar’s 
worth of feed. 
The average 
• Guernsey bull 
will be likely 
ferior ones. The 
.. average among 
V Guernseys is 
W undoubtedly 
f fi higher. Guern- 
& ■' k/ '’;j seys cost more 
V. in fact a herd 
~ . . of Jersey cows 
0 jJ* ‘ in milk can be 
• •* ' " "••• bought for the 
money required 
to buy the same 
. i number of 
Guernsey heif¬ 
ers. We would 
like to 
and the 
thin 
same 
The object of 
these notes is 
to point out a 
few of the chief 
differences. 
J ersey and 
Guernsey are 
islands in the 
English Chan¬ 
nel. Where the 
cattle found on 
these islands 
originally came 
from, is mostly 
conjecture; but 
it is generally 
accepted as true 
that, for many 
years, the cat¬ 
tle on all the 
islands were 
much the same. 
There came a 
time finally 
when the Eng¬ 
lish and other 
markets de¬ 
manded certain 
characteristics 
in a dairy cow, 
and the more 
enterprising 
Jersey breed¬ 
ers set them¬ 
selves to the 
task of produc¬ 
ing it. The English fancier demanded a spirited, 
beautiful cow for his lawn. The first demand was for 
a graceful and beautiful creature, rather than for in¬ 
creased butter production. The breeders on Guern¬ 
sey were more conservative than their neighbors. 
They were not carried away by the craze for color 
and graceful figure, but went on breeding in their 
slow and steady way, a big, quiet cow, with gold in 
her skin, in her ears, and around her horns—not to 
speak of lumps of it in her milk. 
That was long ago, and the breeding and selecting 
that have been going on since, have made the Jerseys 
and Guernseys similar in some respects, yet different 
enough to separate them as breeds. The Jersey Island 
breeders soon found that they could not produce the 
ideal cow for the English lawn if breeding stock from 
Guernsey was allowed on the island. The Guernsey 
breeders also concluded that they could not keep up 
the cherished* characteristics of their breed if the 
%0 7fcffi&c;c. 
THE GUERNSEY ! A TYPICAL HULL AS BRED IN AMERICA. Fig. 22: 
see 
the Guernsey 
breeders show a little more enterprise, and show 
forth the good points of their really excellent breed. 
A Typical Guernsey Bull; Care of a Herd. 
Faucettan 3076, A. G. C. C , shown at Fig. 222, is at 
the head of the Guernsey herd at Willswood Farm. 
This herd, though not yet a large one, contains some 
well-bred, typical animals. The herd is yet in the 
formative period, and the breeding is with a view to 
obtain vigor in the progeny, as well as quality in the 
milk product. The aim is to avoid inbreeding and 
the craze for too fine points which has sadly injured 
the Jersey breed, and is likely to do the same for some 
Guernsey herds, unless the breeders change their 
methods. The temptation is great to breed to please 
the judges when one exhibits at fairs, and the mistake 
has been made at many fairs of assigning Jersey 
judges to judge the Guernseys, which is all wrong. 
They should be judged by men who, at the least, are 
the city ; yet they are of the same original blood. 
Each might be justly called superior at some work. 
This is but an illustration of the way the two breeds 
separated originally. The Jersey breeders have al¬ 
ways been the more enterprising, and when “solid- 
color and black points ” and other fads wore out, and 
a practical working cow was demanded, the Jerseys 
were quickly headed in that direction. Some of the 
breeders were too eager in this change. They over¬ 
did the thing by forcing their best cows to perform 
extravagant tests, and by inbreeding, to preserve 
some cherished type, sadly weakened certain families 
of their breed. The Jerseys have been widely scat¬ 
tered, and have adapted themselves to all climates 
and conditions. The Guernseys have not been boomed 
or pushed, and their distinctly good qualities are not 
so well known. 
This very conservatism of the Guernsey breeder has 
been, in one sense, a good thing for the breed. Its 
