The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-12-13
H0isteins VS.. Jerseys.


To the intelligent and thoughtful
breeder or admirer of live stock, the
wonderful growth of herds Of, and in
terest in, lIolStein5 in the United
s. .es Is matter of qualification Ten
s ago one could, npon his fingers,
count every herd in America. To-day
ut al, our fairs they equal in number
the most priced bTetds. Nor Is this
to be- wondered at a royal race, they
supply n long felt want among the
American t.diTfmen and farmers, and
Ill exactly. rs no other breed clu fill,
q peculiar WaAt-that of immense
miikers. Here is their ocular field,
and upOn this field they uTC c0puuer-
ors every time.
1t is a well established fact in feed
ing that animals consume food in pro-
portion to their siZe--that Il large
animal requires prOportiOnate more
food than a small one, Now let us
apply this rule to the case before us.
Suppose \. has Il herd Of. say fifty
Holsteins, and his neighbor b. a herd
of the same number OF Jerseys, both
engaged in making butter; would it
not take Just about twice as much
grain, hay and pasture to keep AS
big COWS as it viii BIS? Fairly put,
LET us say that AS Holsteins will
average 1000 for aged COWS. As fair
ly, we can say BIS Jerseys weigh 700
each. Ii so, would there not be
wonderful saving in the feed in BIS
favor.
Possessing as they do, COWS of such
grand show and performance, the
fIolstein breeder, however, is liable to
fail into n very natural error; that
granting his fav0TiteS to be ne plus
| ultra, the" milk cow. ergo she is the
best dairy cow. And one can hardly
! blame the owner OF one Of these grand
COWS, with daily record of 20, so, and
even so pounds OF milk per day, for
Boosting. lie has. indeed. much to be
| proud Of. But there is another side
| to this question of apparent superior
ity. AS grand and as good as his
herd may be, the HolStein breeder
must submit his claims to the same
tribunal where the Short-Horn, the
Hereford, the Devon, the Ayrshire,
the Jersey, and other breeds, must
stand to be judged, and that tribunal
is profit. For arguments sake, let
the reader compare the two breeds
that in size are at the extremes,
namely, Holsteins and Jerseys. Let
the question be, which breed is the
most profitable for use in the dairy,
where butter is the main source OF
profit? We will readily grant that
the IIolsteins will greatly out-milk
our faVoTite, the meek-eyed little
Jersey. Possibly in two herds, side
by side, picked Hol5teinS may make,
week for week, as much butter per
cow as a fairly selected lot of Jerseys,
but-and here is the one great ques-
ton that lies at the bottom of every
mans business, whether merchant,
manufacturer or farmer-which will
pay the best?
Another view: Experience proves
that fairly selected herd of Jersey
COWS can be relied upon for an OUT
turn of one pound of butter for two
gallons of milk This will be a safe
business calculation. Now, viii any
/. advocate of the superiority OF the
Uolsteln's, as butter cows, insist upon
so large a percentage of butter to the
gallon of his Holstein's milk? With
such tremendous quantities of milk
as we all know picked cows Of Hol-
stein blood can, and do, produce, en-
falling upon the milknan great labor
in drawing and caring for, compared
with similar labor of his neighbor,
Jersey man, even this grant quantity
is, to degree, drawback from but
ter-maker's standpoint.
AS two marked examples Of the rel
alive merits of the two breeds, let us
take the COWS just now prominently
before the public as wonderful butter
makers-Mercedes and Mary Anne OF
st. Lamberts-With their monthly re-
cords of nearly 100 pounds of unsalted
butter each. AS matter of econom-
ical production Of butter, what dairy
man will not decide at once in favor
of the phenomenal little Canadian,
whose moderate daily average of six
teen quarts of milk was enough to
give one-third Qhirty-three per cent?
cream, and make an average of 100
pounds of butter per month for three
months, thus placing her at the head
, of undergraduates the world over,
and this in her four-year-old formp
No, let us lift our hats to the queen
" Holsteins as superb cattle, and as
producers of milk award them the
palm; but for quantity and quality in
, the butter dairy they must bow, as do
the lordly Short-Horns and every
! other breed, to the honey little cow
: from the Channel Islands.