Jersey cow

“ Then, we feel sure that a loose, open made cow, rather pointed, or sharp and well-defined, and the contrary of what we would look for in a flesh or beef producing animal; with a skin mellow and yellow, covered with soft, fine hair, and the nearer it comes to the quality and color of a first class Guernsey or Jersey cow, breeds which have for hundreds of years been bred for butter making, then we repeat we know she must be a good, rich milker and butter maker ”

“ Jersey cows will usually not produce as much in quantity as the Holsteins but Jersey milk often contains 5% or 6% or more 3butter-fat, and a few of the best have been known to produce 800 to 900 lbs. of butter in one year, an amount equal to the cow’s own weight. The red Danish cow is an exceedingly good and highly bred milk producer which, however, has not been introduced in the United States, but the Scotch Ayrshires and the Brown Swiss are other well-known dairy breeds which are in favor with many American farmers. ”

“ The Jersey will not stand harsh usage; but for the man of refined taste and good judgment, who wants a nice thing and to turn out fancy goods, she is most decidedly the cow, and will not disappoint him. Solid colors and black muzzles are the fashion in Jerseys, but we are not aware that there is any practical merit in these. They have been bred down in size, to suit the taste of the English Lord, who wants them as pets on his lawns. This is rather against than in favor of the Jersey as a dairy cow, as it must of necessity reduce her capacity for converting food into milk and cream. ”

“ Haxton calls the Jersey cow the cheese and butter dairyman’s friend when her milk is diluted with that of ten or a dozen ordinary cows, and his enemy if he should attempt to make either cheese or butter solely from her produce, as, from the excessive richness of the milk, neither will keep long ”

“ We had very nice brown bread for tea, rather a light brown, and spongy—Mrs. Jeyes made it, the Yearsly cook, who had been there always and stayed always—the servants never changed at Yearsly—and milk and butter from Cousin John’s Jersey cows, specially nice butter. Sometimes one of the cows would look in at the window, the north window, on to the park. Once Guy got out of the window on to a cow’s back, and rode off on it—but the cow kicked him off very soon, and we watched him chasing it and laughing, but he could not get on again. ”

“ Our preference is for a medium sized cow, one that will dress five hundred and fifty or six hundred pounds; and, as far as our observation goes, a Jersey sire, with an Ayrshire dam, is the best cross for a milk and butter cow, and the most profitable for the amount of food consumed; though a Jersey or Guernsey sire to the milking stock of Durhams, or a Holstein, or a large yielding native cow, will produce a better cow for butter than the mother was. ”

“ Thayne, "those are the cow cabbages of Jersey. They are common in the interior of the island. It's a peculiar kind of cabbage growing five or six feet high. The farmers pick the leaves on the stalk and leave just the head on top. These stalks are made into the canes we have seen in shops."
"I saw them," said Win, "but I didn't realize what they were. Look, there's a Jersey cow among the cabbages."
"The Jersey cattle are so pretty," said Frances admiringly.
"They are very valuable," said Edith. "The farmers coddle them like children." ”

“ The beauty of a milch cow is the result of her good qualities. Large milkers are very rarely cows that please the eye of any but a skillful judge. They are generally poor, since their food goes mainly to the production of milk, and because they are selected with less regard to form than to good milking qualities. The prevailing opinion as to the beauty of the Jersey, is based on the general appearance of the cow when in milk—no experiments in feeding exclusively for beef having been made public, and [32] no opportunity to form a correct judgment from actual observation having been furnished ”

“ These cattle are of fawn or smoke colour, beautifully shaded on the ribs and haunches. The horns are short and curved towards each other, and are black in colour. The face is deer-like and free from flesh, and the carcass is light in front and heavy behind. They are free milkers, and the milk is of rich colour and extremely rich in cream. It is the butter-making breed par excellence, and the beautiful rich yellow colour of the butter confers upon it a special value. A Jersey cow converts her food into rich milk and is a slow fattener. ”

“ The cows have excellent milking qualities and give very rich milk. They also have a big frame and fine constitution. About the finest cows in Humboldt county were of this cross although Jersey bulls have been used so long that the Shorthorn blood is almost eliminated. The first "improved" cattle in California and the first cross made for dairy purposes was Jersey bulls upon grade Shorthorn cows. Later the Holstein Friesians became popular and they and their grades are now most abundant.
A Free Martin.
I have a Jersey cow who has just had twin calves, a heifer and a bull. ”

“ My reply is that prices have not declined all over the United States, but that the old breeders have dropped out in Tennessee and that there are now very few breeders in Tennessee paying any attention to the development of the Jersey cow. ”

“ It says that, other things being equal, the descendants of a fast horse shall be fast, and the posterity of a plug shall be plugs. It says that a Jersey cow, with thin ears, straight back, and copious yield of rich milk, shall have children like unto herself. ”

“ It is the experience of every breeder of Jerseys that, being dry, they will take on flesh as fast, with a given quantity and quality of feed, as other breeds, not exclusively beef producers.
They are not good for beef, simply because they are good for butter.
From Jersey cows, a farmer in New England can make a pound of butter worth thirty-five cents, with a less quantity of food than they now use to make a pound and one half of beef worth nine cents. ”

“ The idea that it costs more to keep Jersey cows than common cows, or that Jersey cows will not take on flesh, for beef, as readily as other breeds, is true in one view, and very erroneous in another and more correct one.
What a Jersey eats, beyond a limited amount, increases the quantity and richness of her milk, not her flesh, and the amount of flesh she carries is proportionally less for any extra feed, because it does not make flesh, but increases the butter globules in her milk. ”

“ Those who talk loudest against them, will hold on to a cow in their herd that has a little Jersey blood in her; and if they put a price on her, it will be from half as much again, to double that of the finer formed cow standing beside her, guiltless of having any Jersey blood in her veins.
If there is an animal to be had any better than the bull any one is now using, it ought to be secured at once. So with cows, but by all means change at once for a better, any bull, however good. ”

“ Selecting the Family Cow.—The breed to be selected is not important, except that for family use a cow of the so-called Channel breeds (Guernsey or Jersey) is considered better adapted because of the higher butter fat content of the milk as compared with the Holstein-Friesian, for example, which usually produces a larger total quantity of milk with less butter fat. It is not necessary to purchase a pure-bred animal of any of the breeds, so far as milk production is concerned. On the other hand, a pure-bred registered cow may often be purchased at moderate cost. ”

“ In other words, its presence is a good sign, while its absence is not necessarily a cause for distrust. Milk-veins, as an indication for milking capacity, are of about the same value as the escutcheon.”
“The editor of the Jersey Bulletin, in commenting on this, says:
“We should be very glad to know of a cow, worthy to be called an ‘excellent milker’—duration of the flow after becoming pregnant being one of the tests—which has no escutcheon at all, or a very small one. ”

“ Those commonly known by the name of "Alderney Cows" in England need but little description, save that the Channel Isles being their [32] natural soil, they thrive well and produce almost double the quantity of butter to what they do in England [A] , France, or elsewhere. Hence it often comes within the range of an observer to witness upwards of fifteen pounds of butter from a cow per week throughout the summer. Foreign cows, according to law, are not permitted in the Island, and even a farmer would not allow a Jersey one to be seen on his land. ”

“ We keep a good grade Jersey, and will give our way of keeping one cow, having learned long ago, that stock of any kind paid for good care. Keeping a lot of cattle or hogs, or poultry, and simply feeding what we happen to have, or what we can buy cheap, leaving them to shift for themselves in cold and stormy weather, or giving them wet uncomfortable stables, always results in disease to the stock and loss to the owner.
We sow as early in the spring as the ground is in condition to work, forty rods with a mixture of oats and peas, and forty rods in spring rye. ”

“ He had a Poland China boar, a Jersey bull, and a Percheron stallion which were the talk of the countryside. He had cornfed sows which looked like minor blimps wallowing in his pig yards and scratching their ample backs against mail-order scratching posts which turned like screws twisting sinuous curls of soothing grease upward to salve the noble porcine flanks; soft-eyed Jersey cows whose pedigrees compared favorably with that of any reigning monarch; Shetland ponies, Shropshire sheep, and a small herd of goats. ”

“ A cow may eat dirty feed occasionally, but see to it that the water she drinks is pure. Unless this is attended to her milk is unfit for human food.
The manure trough being supplied with sawdust, the urine, as well as the droppings, were saved and removed daily to a covered shed located in one corner of the lot, where it was kept moist, and worked over occasionally. Our Jersey was due with her second calf about June twentieth, but was still giving milk in April and May. ”

“ The Devons are beautiful red cattle. They do not rank as large milkers,322 but produce a superior quality of milk, and are unexcelled in this respect by any breed but the Jersey. One peculiarity about the breed is the comparative smallness of the cow; for while the steer will weigh from 1400 to 1600 pounds, the cows will average only from 800 to 1000 pounds each. ”

“ The diminutive Jersey cows, now reared in all parts of the kingdom, surpass all the animals of Europe or America in the richness of their milk, while stock from the pedigree herds of various English breeds is eagerly sought by foreign and continental buyers on both sides of the Atlantic, and in New Zealand and Australia. These foreign strains need constant replenishing from the English herds, and the result is a golden harvest to the breeders in these islands. ”

“ Moreover, about 100 bulls and 1,600 cows and heifers are exported every year, so that by this time, as was remarked in an American paper, there are more Jersey cows in America than in Jersey Island. Jersey milk and butter have a wide renown, as also the pears which are grown in the open air, but each of which is protected on the tree by a separate cap, and still more the fruit and vegetables which are grown in the hothouses. In a word, it will suffice to say that on the whole they obtain agricultural produce to the value of £ 50 to each acre of the aggregate surface of the island. ”

“ Cows are in most of the fields, the dairy being the main thing in these farms; and next to the small Jersey-like cow, the native breed, the pig ranks in importance. It is pleasant to see the pigs in these parts, as they are allowed more liberty in the fields and about the house than they usually get in other places ”

“ She builds no big muscles with which to climb mountains, or wade through mud and snow drifts. The beef animal if treated like a dairy cow simply gets fat and is finally turned to the butcher. The dairy cow treated like a beef cow is a tragedy to behold. I [Pg 9] have seen both Holstein and Jersey steers out on the range where Hereford cattle stay fat and strong and I have heard the cow boys cuss about letting them live, for they were more of a ghost than a reality. ”

“ Taking any good herd of Jersey cows, old and young, from the time the heifers first come in milk, and it will average to make two thirds as many pounds of butter per annum as any person in New England can make in pounds of beef, on any herd of any breed. ”

“ He prepares a mess for her noon feed, which is given by one of the boys at school when he comes home to lunch. The cow is a grade, probably three-fourths Jersey and one-fourth common blood. Her milk is rich, yields abundant cream, and, as the owner’s family say, “Is worth fully double any milk we ever got from the best milk dealers.” One neighboring family gladly takes six quarts a day at seven cents a quart, and would willingly pay much more if it were asked, and other families would be happy to get some of it at ten cents a quart ”

“ The same alliteration might be used to form an accidental definition of Jersey—cows, cabbages, cider, and crapauds. The cows are those usually known by the name of Alderneys; but the smaller isle steals its bucolic honour from the larger. There are no other cows in Jersey alive; for the laws of the island forbid the importation of foreign breeds. All extraneous cows seen painfully landed from the butchers’ cutters from France, or painfully dragging their stiffened limbs along the road, are under sentence of death. ”