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306 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Sepr., 1901. 
JERSEYS FOR THE DAIRY. 
Mr. Alfred Gorrie, “ Carina,” writes as follows, on the subject of the best 
dairy cow, to the Queensland Times. We purposely omit the controversial 
ortion of his letter. The rest is well worthy of the attention of dairy 
armers :— 
“A cross,” he says, “between the shorthorn and Ayrshire is practically 
the breed now used by the average dairyman—-at any rate, shorthorn blood 
predominates in the average dairy herds of the State, and the average annual 
production per cow is too shockingly low to publish. Suffice it to say that if 
the average dairymen kept the scales and the tester on their cows for the year, 
they would find that more than half of them did not pay for the attention 
bestowed on them and the room they occupied, much less the food they con- 
sumed. Jerseys have proved themselves valuable dairy animals all over the 
world. Originating on a small out-of-the-way island, they would never have 
been heard of except for their special dairy excellence. The Americans, who — 
love dollars and everything that produces them, have given the Jersey first 
pee in all their great dairies, not out of mere sentiment—for that doesn’t go. 
ar with such practical people—but because she had demonstrated her superi- 
ority over all other breeds in a butter-producing capacity. 
That they had not misplaced their confidence in the breed was afterwards 
proved at the ninety-day test held at the World’s Fair in 1898, to which I will 
refer later on. ‘I could mention some great yields of milk and butter from 
Jerseys in Queensland other than my own, but, as they are individual cases, I 
will not refer to them. From my foundation cow, I sold to my grocer 12 Ib. 
of butter per week, besides using a certain quantity of milk night and morning 
for table use; and this by hand-skimming, and before the separator was. 
introduced into Queensland. She is now seventeen years old, and it would still 
take a very good shorthorn-Ayrshire cross to equal her year’s butter produc- 
tion. That cow.has been milking for fifteen years, with but four to five weeks” 
spell each year before calving. Surely the breed that produced such a cow 
Aron not be considered a bad breed for the dairy. I keep a considerable herd, 
and my worst cow produces 250 lb. of butter per year. Let dairymen who 
keep the shorthorn-Ayrshire cross start to cull out all that do not come up to 
250 lb. of butter per year, and I am satisfied that they will very quickly reduce 
their herds, and then they would only have cows equal to my worst Jersey. 
All dairy breeds competed for the £100 butter-test prize offered by the 
Royal Society of Victoria last year, and the winner was found to be a full- 
blooded Jersey producing 2°4 oz. of butter in the twenty-four hours. This was 
not equal to her home test of 2°10 oz. of butter made by the churn just prior 
to the show. The second, third, and fourth cows were all full-blooded or grade- 
Jerseys, while the shorthorns were a long way down on the list. 
he most interesting tests ever conducted to prove the value of the 
different breeds for the dairy were at the World’s Fair, where each breed was 
represented by twenty-five cows at a ninety-day test. The first test was for 
cheese (fifteen days). The result of this was most grauitying to Jersey 
breeders, as they gained a complete victory in every way. While few believed 
the Jersey cow was, par excellence, not only the best butter cow, but also the 
best cheese cow, it was not generally conceded that this was the case, and it 
remained for this test to prove, in a most conclusive way, that she was not only 
the queen of the churn, but also of the cheese vat. As was demonstrated, the 
Jersey herd not only gave more milk than the other breeds, exceeding the Guern- 
seys in fifteen days by 2,357 lb., and the shorthorns by 1,109 lb., but the milk con- 
tained not only more fat, but also more solids other than fat,so that the milk made 
more cheese per 100 lb. than that of the other breeds. The quantity of cheese 
produced by the Jerseys exceeded that of the Guernseys by 34 lb., and the 
shorthorns by 8741b. The Jerseys not only made more cheese, but scored most 
points for texture and keeping quality. The next award was “ for individual 
cow in any breed competing which yielded the greatest net profit during the 
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