Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-09-20
ALDERNEY COWS.
where the Deer-LilVe AIderneys or Jerseys
Come From and What They Are-Th
BIOOded stock that Produces Cream In
stead of MIX.


Como From and What They Are-Th
BIoOded stock that Produces Cream In
stead of MIX.
All imported cattle, with the excep-
ton Of the hardy Scotch Ayrshires and the
big-boned English Durhams, find their
way here from the Channel Islands.
South Of the English coast, clustered IN
a deep bay running into the northwest
coast Of France, rises a bunch of rocky
islets. But four of these are inhabited.
But three of them have had their names
waited over the seas. Sark is not noted for
its cattle nor for anything in particular,
but one family and its dependents living
thereon. Attorney has for its inhabi-
tants the government officers OF the
Harbor of Refuge and a few fishermen.
Guernsey has a thriving, seafaring popu-
lation. Jersey has perfect little colony
of folks as gentle bred as their cattle
and that is no sighting comparison.
These little side-channel islands possess
a verdure almost tropical, people still
clinging to their ancient forms of eighty
decades ago, a freedom from taxes and
imposts and cattle known and sought
after the wide world over. To the cattle
breeder, not connoisseur, there are
three distinct classes of channel stock:
Attorney, Jersey and Guernsey.
Authorities upon the matter claim,
however, that Attorneys are but Jer-
seys, the latter being the proper name
for all channel kline, with the exception
of the Guernseys, and in support of this
they claim that all the fine cattle found
throughout England were brought from
Jersey, the name Attorney only being
derived from the fact that the first ami
mails brought across the channel came
from Attorney, which island, however,
produces very few cattle. The truth Of
the matter can be summed up, however,
in this, that the species is miscalled AL
derney only as far as the Jerseys are
concerned and Attorneys can be found,
although differing but slightly from the
Jerseys, which make up the mass of the
channel cattle. Jerseys, however, will
be called Attorneys for many a day to
come, although, Herkness, the Phila-
delphia Tattersalls, has taken the new
name by now placing Jersey instead of
Attorney upon his catalogues.
The first record of an importation to
| VI Nubllu6l CdlblG 10 Ill lOl !,
when Richard Morris, Philadelphia, de-
scribes "cow of the Attorney breed
imported short time previously by Mr..
Wurtz." Mr.. Reuben Haines subse-
quently got possession of this animal.
No other importations are known of IN
til 1910, when Nicholas Biddle, the great
United States Bank man, had herd of
Guernseys shipped across the sea. II
was fine-bred stock, and their descend
ants are still owned and priced by Judge
Craig Biddle, of the Philadelphia Com
mon Pleas Courts, who has never al
lowed the finer formed and more beau.
tiful Jerseys to commingle with the get
of the larger boned and coarser-l looking
Guemseys, which his forefather i'm.
ported. What may be considered the
foundation stock of the present herds Of
Attorneys or Jerseys in this country
was the importations made about 1856
by Mr.. Motley for himself and others
and by Messrs. Taintor, Norton and
Buck, near Hartford. Nowadaysa large
number of the cattle are shipped this
way. In 1865 three Thousand Jersey
COWS and heifers and about twelve hun
dred Guernseys were exported from the
islands, large percentage of them com
ing to America. The Eastern and Mid
die States have now large herds of fine
cattle and their yield are going forth tc
stock the pasture lands of the farmer
There are a number of well-known herds
of Jerseys owned by gentlemen having
their country-seats around Philadelphia
and through the State.
A fine Jersey COW will cost from $500
to 800, when a good common grade ami
NAL will sell for $50. But then the
Channel stock, while useful, are also
ornamental. In their island homes they
are not permitted,t to roam at large, but are
tethered in pad dock, with the children
playing under their feet. The remark
able docility aud gentleness which they
thus acquire is rarely lost by their pro
geny. This applies only to the female
animal. A Jersey bull, after he hal
passed his second year, is terribly wild
fellow even among bulls. He is rarel,
permitted to roam the pasture, for five
barred fences offer no difficulties that hi
cannot surmount, and unless ringet
through his nose and chained from horns
to nostrils and from nostrils to feet, h'
rushes with lowered head at everybody
and everything. The COWS, however
are all gentleness. Their form is thu
perfection of kline beauty. They nee(
but antlered horns to transfer them int
deers. Their breath is like the scent O
new moan hay. The richness of theil
cream glistens through their skin. Thei
eyes are large and lustrous and intelli
gent-looking. Their horns are, O.
should be, short, small at the base
tapering and tipped with black. Theil
small size and deer-like aspect distin
guish them from the Guernseys, which
are larger, coarser in the head, heavie
: in the bone and with horns longer ant
, thicker at the base. The Jersey cow
greatest charm, however, is the milk. O
rather cream-it is nearly all cream
that she produces. Nothing but
, draught of it can give an idea of it's ex
, ceeding richness and fine flavor. Ever
, though the Jersey animal may not pro
duce as much milk as her common grad
/ sister of America, yet what she doe
, yield will produce far more butter, sucl
is its wealth of the oil that forms tn
{ dairy's golden treasure, and for this rea
son the Jersey cattle are now being in
, troduced among those farmers who cal
see nothing in the beauty of the beauties
of the Channel Islands. Philadelphia
Times.
! New YOrk's Costly Buildings.