Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-01-23
More About Jerseys.

A prominent Washington county farmer
modesty objects to so much publicity writes
slavery interesting letter upon the subject of
our recent article upon this breed of cattle
Our friend is not Jersey breeder " in the
technical sense, his herd consisting almost
entirely of grades. from one-half to seven
eighths blood. He says, =" My heifers are so
promising in appearance that have refused
what would be called a good offer for some
of them, although am short and must buy
hay; but am trying for ten cows that
cannot be beat, and have taken considerable
pains to breed from the best so as to mix
blood as much as | could. have raised
them myself without any great outlay of
money, but with some care and labor.
When my hefers come in | shall try them
and publish the results" We certainly hope
he will give our readers chance to see how
these heifers turn out, so that we may all
have a guide as to the wisdom of doing
likewise
On the beef and calves question this good
farmer takes issue. He claims that three
days old grade Jersey calf either bull OF
heifer will sell for more to raise than the
best veal calf from grade Shorthorn. And
he adds, can refer TO instances where they
(Jersey and Jersey grades) are equal in size
to the average native, six hundred or seven
hundred pounds dressed. They feed well,
and tehe aeol equal tV au,, aud wiivn ia,
the meat is really worth more than that OF
any other blood" This has also been claimed
that Jersey beef is as much richer in flavor
as the milk is richer in butter. He also
thinks that for cheese or market milk all
average Jersey herd would be as profitable
as an average Shorthorn herd. Perhaps his
judgment of the latter herd is in accord
with that of Alexis Smith, of New Haven
who, praisng the Shorthorns in his funny
way, said, They beat every breed ever saw
in drying off," But, really, we don't see the
wisdom of claiming everything for one
breed. We believe the future of the JERSEYS
would be far better to drop all thought of
breeding them to any other than butter
standard. 1t would be loss, in our judg
ment to approximate them to the Ayrshires
by trying to make them deep mixers at any
surrender of richness or quality The stand
ard should be POUNDS OF BUTTER, not quarts
of milk. Trying to breed to the latter will
imperil the former.
On the bull question our correspondent
says, " have had two ; one raised from a
calf, the other | bought when a year old,
mails than either of them" The way in
which bulls of all the improved breeds are
usually kept tend to make them vicious.
They are confined in pens without exercise
treated like savage animals, in short, and it
is no wonder they become so. We have
known quite number of Jersey bulls as safe
as cows, but they were worked or exercised
in some way, and not Gagged or pampered.
Finally, our friend says he "has kept
Ayrshires, Shorthorns, Hereford and Devon
grader, and natives, and is better suited with
his Jerseys than ever before, and his next
choice would be good native. The value
OF our "natives," and their capacity for de-
velopment under intelligent handling, care
full feeding and selection, is too little appre-
ciated. As the foundation of thoroughly
good dairy breed we believe them to be far
superior to that, for instance, upon which
the Ayrshire has been builtup almost within
the memory of living man.