1874 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
59 
which the gold-fish is a variety, and almost 
any of the coarser Sorts of fish. Sun-fish or 
roach do well in such ponds if they have coarse 
sand or gravel in which to make their beds. 
The yellow perch would probably thrive in 
them, with brush or sticks near the shore on 
which to affix their spawn and to make a shel¬ 
ter for their young. Of course, in such a pond 
the number of fish that can be raised is quite 
limited. They begin to devour one another at 
a very early age, and this is the strongest char¬ 
acteristic of nearly all the finny tribes through 
life. It is their destiny to be eaten, and they 
seem to have no nice sense of gratitude, to re¬ 
serve themselves for the palate of the culturist, 
but yield to the first mouth that opens. Con¬ 
stant feeding with animal food will abate then- 
hunger somewhat, and leave more fish to reach 
adult years, but this, in old communities where 
such food is scarce, diminishes profits. Where 
springs are copious, trout can be raised to ad¬ 
vantage in small ponds. To raise black bass 
successfully clear water with a gravelly or 
rocky bottom is needed, and the larger and 
deeper it is the better prospect of success. 
What may be Expected of a Jersey Cow. 
We receive a great many inquiries which 
show that the characteristics of the Jersey cow 
are not very well understood even among the 
readers of agricultural papers. One man wants 
to know what sort of working cattle they would 
make, and if the beef is as good as that of the 
natives. Another is going into the milk business, 
and wants to know if the Jerseys are the stock 
he should purchase. Another is near a cheese 
factory, and thinks the Jerseys possibly may 
be the best thing for him. A lady of romantic 
turn has bought a Jersey heifer with her first 
calf, and suspects she has been badly cheated 
because she does not get a pailful of milk at 
night and morning. 
The Jersey is not a worker of miracles, and 
can no more make something out of nothing 
than any other breed of cattle. She is not even 
an extraordinary animal, and does but one thing 
in a superlative way. If one wants to raise 
working cattle the Devons are beautiful to the 
eye, and have been trained to the yoke for 
many generations. If he wants early maturity 
in the beeves the Shorthorns have no rivals. 
If he desires a large quantity of good milk for 
the nearest village market the Ayrshires are 
hard to beat. But if he wants a pet family 
cow, giving a small quantity of very rich milk 
for his own table, he may safely invest in a 
Jersey cow. It is so rich in cream that we 
should not like to repeat the statements of credi¬ 
ble witnesses, who have milked the cows, poured 
the milk into the lactometer and measured the 
thickness of the cream, and churned and worked 
the butter with their own hands. • Five quarts 
of milk have been known to make a pound of 
butter. Heifers with their first calves some¬ 
times make five or six pounds of butter a week, 
and cows ten or twelve pounds a week. In 
extreme cases, nineteen pounds have been pro¬ 
duced in a week from one Jersey cow, of course 
in flush feed, and with as much meal as she 
could digest. It is not reasonable to expect 
that a cow giving milk so rich in butter will 
give a very large quantity. The average of 
Jersey herds probably does not exceed eight to 
12 quarts per cow daily in good pasture. The 
milk is very palatable, and children once accus¬ 
tomed to it are apt to be disgusted with the 
thinner fluids furnished by the milkman. The 
butter made from it is of the deepest yellow, 
very solid and waxy, and of the richest flavor. 
It is unlike any other butter that comes to the 
table, and the initiated would not fail to detect 
it among a hundred samples made from the 
milk of other breeds. The cream is so highly 
colored that the milk of a single Jersey cow in 
a herd of a dozen natives will increase the 
color of all the butter made from the dairy. 
There is a steadily increasing demand for Jer¬ 
sey butter in the Boston and Philadelphia mar¬ 
kets, where the article is best known. In the 
suburbs of these cities this breed is very highly 
appreciated, and the butter brings from 75 cents 
to $1 a pound. It is quite the fashion for wealthy 
families living in the suburbs a part of the year 
to keep one or more Jersey cows. 
The Jersey is valued not only for her milk, 
but for her esthetic qualities. She is very gen¬ 
tle, eats from the hand, comes readily at call, 
and takes kindly to petting. She is rather a 
graceful object upon the lawn and, unlike the 
deer, requires no wire fence to keep her from 
straying. Much attention has been paid in late 
years to improvement in the form and color of 
the Jerseys, and animals can now be found 
in many herds very attractive to the eye with¬ 
out any loss of the valuable qualities that char¬ 
acterize the breed. Quite as good Jerseys are 
now raised in this country as are imported, and 
we are inclined to think that our best breeders 
are even more careful of pedigrees and of 
breeding for valuable points than they are in 
the Isle of Jersey. They can be bought quite 
as cheap, and with the additional advantage of 
a personal knowledge of the breeder as a 
voucher for the authenticity of the pedigree. 
In the northern parts of the country the Jerseys 
are already acclimated, and are found to do 
quite as well as in their native island. They 
are not dainty feeders, but eat readily the vege¬ 
table refuse of the family, and appear to enjoy 
it quite as well as the pasture. To do their 
best, they want abundant feed of good quality 
and comfortable quarters kept reasonably clean. 
---—-- 
Loss of Weight in Dressing Turkeys. 
Farmers frequently have occasion to sell 
turkeys by live weight, and wish to know what 
is the fair relative price between live and dead 
weight. In turkeys dressed for the New York 
market, where the blood and feathers only are 
removed, the loss is very small. For the East¬ 
ern markets the head is cut off and the entrails 
are taken out. This makes a loss of nearly 
one-tenth in the weight. A large gobbler was 
recently killed weighing alive 31.J- lbs. After 
bleeding and picking he weighed 29^ lbs., a 
loss of 2 lbs., or about one-fifteentli. When 
ready for the spit he weighed 28£ lbs.—a loss 
of 3j~ lbs., which is very nearly one-tentli of 
the weight. Where the market requires the 
New York style of dressing, and the price is 
15 cents a pound, a farmer could afford to sell 
at 14 cents live weight, or less, if he counted 
the labor of dressing anything. In the other- 
style of dressing, if the price were 20 cents, he 
could sell for 18 cents, or less, live weight, 
without loss. Farmers who have never tested 
the loss of weight in dressing sometimes submit 
to a deduction of three or four cents a pound 
from the middlemen, who are interested in 
making this large difference. We have no 
means of knowing the exact cost of dressing 
turkeys, but half a cent a pound would prob¬ 
ably be a large estimate. The prevailing higher 
price of dressed turkeys in the Eastern market 
is not owing simply to the difference in the 
style of dressing, though this has something to 
do with it. A large portion of the turkeys that 
go to the Boston and Providence markets are 
of extra large size, principally of the Bronze 
and Narragansett breeds and their crosses, 
raised in Rhode Island and Eastern Connec¬ 
ticut, where the farmers make it a specialty. 
Whole flocks of young birds will dress about 
12 lbs. on the average at Thanksgiving, and 
14 lbs. or more at Christmas. Young cocks 
frequently reach 18 to 20 lbs. dressed during 
the winter, and adult cocks 28 to 30 lbs. These 
birds are prepared for the market in the nicest 
style, and are shipped by the ton for the holi¬ 
days. They always bring extra prices. 
Transportation of Cattle. 
It is an undoubted fact that a large amount 
of suffering is inflicted upon cattle in their 
transportation from their feeding grounds to 
the Eastern markets. Money is at the bottom 
of this suffering, or rather, we might say, that 
it can not be afforded to transport cattle with¬ 
out it. It is also an indisputable fact that be¬ 
tween the farmer who feeds and sells the cattle 
and the purchasers in the cities who consume 
the meat an immense part of the ultimate cost 
of the meat disappears. Possibly this is un¬ 
avoidable under the present system, but it is 
not on that account any the less disagreeable 
to either of the parties out of whose pocket 
the money which disappears is taken. We are 
not without a well-grounded hope that this 
condition of things may soon be changed for 
the better. We not long ago inspected a con¬ 
signment of 420 carcasses of beef which were 
slaughtered in Texas and shipped to NewYork, 
where they arrived after a journey including 
delays of at least ten days. The beef was ex¬ 
cellently well preserved in the patent refriger¬ 
ator cars of Mr. T. L. Rankin, of Emporia, 
Kansas, and Denison, Texas. This beef was 
sold in New York at an average price of six 
cents per pound. At the same time, its first 
cost in Texas was far more'remunerative to the 
feeder of the cattle than it has hitherto been. 
Not the least pleasing consideration is that the 
immense amount of cruel suffering and agony 
incident to transportation was spared to these 
cattle. This is particularly exemplified by the 
absence of the usual extensive bruises with 
which the shoulders and flanks of beef cattle 
shipped alive are covered, and which tell a tale 
of great pain to the poor brutes. The suc¬ 
cess of this experiment—which will be at 
once repeated—tends to show that if beef 
can be shipped from Texas and received in 
New York in perfect condition, with the ad¬ 
vantage of a gain of 50 per cent in the receipts 
of the feeder and a saving of 30 per cent in the 
outlay of the final consumer in the cities, it 
may also be transported from Illinois, Ken¬ 
tucky, Ohio, or Iowa with even greater facility 
and an equal gain to the parties interested. 
Here is a matter for Western farmers to con¬ 
sider. They are really but 48 to 60 hours from 
New York, Boston, or Philadelphia. If it is 
demonstrated that beef can be kept in these 
cars perfectly well for ten days it is still easier 
to keep it two to three days. The farmer will 
save the freight upon the offal, or 45 per cent, 
by shipping beef instead of cattle. If by the 
exercise of associated effort Western cattle can 
be slaughtered on the farmers’ account, shipped 
in their own cars to their own agent in the 
East, and sold for their account, there will 
