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PRICE SIX CENTS 
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VOL. XXXV. No. 23. ) 
WHOLE No. 1128. f 
by tlio Rural Publishing Company, in tlio office of tlio Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 187’ 
generally i a greater variety of food and hotter attention 
have rendered the latter proportionately more 
valuable, although their size lias not boon much 
increased. Tlio cost of keeping them, however, 
is considerably heavier, as it has been found by 
experiment that four Breton cows wilt thrive 
finely on the amount of food required to support 
a single Alderney. Below wo give an illustration 
of a group of this very interesting breedof cattle. 
Those hero r 
for oaeli, and during winter they aro 
fed economically on mangel-wurzel, turnips, 
parsnips and hay. In proportion to their size 
and tho exponso of their keep, their yield of milk 
exceeds, in quality and quantity, that of any 
other breed. Each cow givos from four to six 
quarts with her first calf, from six to eight with 
her second, and from eight to twelve after she 
has calved the third time. The milk is rich in 
quality, six quarts of it yielding, on an average, 
ono quart of cream, while In some cases from 
sixteon to seventeen pounds of butter have been 
made, each week, from the milk of a single cow. 
The cows s re so small that it would bo unsafe to 
cross one of them with a bull of any other breed, 
so that to perpetuate the race, when exported, it 
is necessary that both sexes should be kept. 
Thin requirement has prevented, in a great meas¬ 
ure, (he introduction of this useful til tie animal 
into other countries, where it might become 
emphatically "tho poor man’s cow." About fif 
teen years ago a considerable number of them 
were imported into England, where they gave 
very general satisfaction, but owing to tho dread 
of introducing tho cattle plague or some other 
continental disease with them the enterprise was 
not continued. 
It is generally supposed that this herd are tho 
progenitors of the Alderneys. Richer pastures, 
sectoil with broken hills, narrow valleys and vast, 
thinly-populated heaths, while old castlos, with 
dilapidated walls and dismantled towers, crown 
many a solitary hillock -grim mementoes of tho 
days of feudalism, which hero nourished vigor¬ 
ously, long after the centralizing policy of the 
Kings of France had crippled or destroyed it 
elsewhere throughout the land. Tho inhabi¬ 
tants. even nowadays, retain many distinctive 
peculiarities of dross and manners, while their 
harsh Celtic language still testifies to their de¬ 
scent. Among them agriculture is of a compar¬ 
atively primitive order, but the richness of the 
noil, the geniality of the climate and tho plod¬ 
ding industry of tho people eompensato for the 
lack of modern improvements in methods and 
appliances of culture. 
The common breed of cows in this region 
are remarkable for their diminutive size, their 
bight, among pure-bred stock varying from 32 to 
40 inches; the comparative richness of their pas¬ 
ture and the care they receive being the chief 
causes of the differences in their growth. They 
are extremely docile, easily managed and free 
from vices of every kind. Their groat hardiness 
of constitution and the small amount of feed ou 
which they will thrive, render thorn invaluable 
to any one having only a small grass plot. An 
acre and three-quarters is quite sufficient pasture 
BRETON CATTLE. 
The ancient province of Brittainy, or Bretagne, 
now divided into five departments, comprises tho 
large triangular peninsula projecting into the 
Atlantic Ocean, and forming tlio western ex¬ 
tremity of France. Originally it was known by 
the name of America, but about the middlo of 
the fifth century large numbers of the Britons, 
driven from their insular homes by the Anglo- 
Saxon invasion, crossed the Channel and estab¬ 
lished an independent colony in the land to 
which, in remembrance of their former residence, 
they gave tho name that still clings to it. Al¬ 
though temporarily subjected to the yoke of the 
Franks by tho Oreat Cuarlemaonb, the prin¬ 
ces of the country, taking advantage of the 
weakness of his successors, soon reasserted their 
independence, which they maintained, with brief 
intervals of subjection cither to English or 
French domination, down to the reign of Fran¬ 
cis I, when, in 1532, tho province was declared 
to form an integral part of tho French King¬ 
dom. 
The interior of the country is largely inter- 
'epresentod are in much hotter con¬ 
dition, however, than the general run of cattle 
in Brittany, There, it often seems tho aim of 
the small proprietors to test on how small a 
quantity of provender animal life can be sup¬ 
ported, and frequently the cows aro kept confined 
in a wretched shed, fed only with a meager 
ration of hay and an abundance or water, yet 
milked three times a day. 
All American farmers will condemn such un¬ 
profitable experiments, and justly stigmatize 
thoso who practice thorn aH behind tho age. 
They know that tho kind treatment and liberal 
feeding of all domestic animals is not only hu¬ 
mane, but is also amply rewarded by an increased 
return of dollars and cents. They w’ould also by 
judicious seleollon nud crossing, have improved 
the size and form of those little animals more in 
a quarter of a century than those rude Breton 
peasants have done in four hundred years. 
