The gold leaf., 1893-06-15
THE:JERSEY COW.
Some of the Many Excellent
Points in Her Favor.
PRIZE ESSAY, BY J. VI. MEYER, Md, A. VI.

race of cattle. The leading uses of
the cattle races may be stated thus:
milk, cream, butter, cheese, meat,
tallow, hides, hair and horn. II is
natural that that animal or class OF
animals yielding the best of results
would attract the attention of an OBJ
serving world, and sooner or later be-
come notorious in some department
of uses. Such has been the demon
strated fact in the instance of the
Jersey COW. The dairy is leading
feature in this category of uses, and
she is preeminently the dairy COW.
Her habitat is the Jersey Island,
a dependency of great Britain. lso-
lated as it is from the busy world, it
is, and has been, admirably adapted
to the development anL purity Of the
breed. By succession of careful hand
lers through centuries she has made
advanced developments in symme-
trical beauty; in constitutional stamina;
in the softness of her skin; in brillancy
of her eye; in the doCility of her deport-
ment; in the richness of her milk; in
in the gllt-edge color OF her butter,
its peculiar aroma and its blandness
to the most fastdious taste; in the
quantity of her milk, and the duration
Of time she will continue to make a
profitable yield; and in the firmness,
succulence, digestbility and nutritious
ness of her beef. With this array Of
excellences we claim she stands to-
day without rival, the dairy COW Of
the world.
This model COW is not large. The
average weight of a fully matured COW
will not be far from $50 pounds. With
ordinary care in handling, she will
come to the pail at two years of age; she
will reach her climax at about five
years; she will produce a calf every
year until she is gfteen years old; if
properly handled she will never go
dry during these years OF service, and
then she will close her career as the
best animal in the butchers stall.
She combines all colors. Possibly
the fawn color predomlnates; but
color, like form, is largely the result
of series of fancy Scrossings, SO that
she may command any desired color.
Her form is symmetrical. She
stands on her four feet perfect beauty.
She has a small head, surmounted with
slender, crumpled horns; her face a
little dished; nose small and neat;
mouth and tongue ever ready to
accept morsel of food from her kind
and generous owner; pair of eyes OF
great prominence and sparkling with
intelligence. Her ear is we'll set, al
most transparent, and almost always
exhalng an unctuous golden secretion.
Her throat latch is small, clean cut
and neat. Her neck is long, slender,
graceful, gradually increasing in its
proportions until lost in a full-orbed,
well-developed body-wedge- shaped,
straight back, deep chested, thin
withers, short legs of the neatest build
and large belly, we'll supplied with
large, tortuous milk veins, which are
SO many feeders to a we'll placed udder
which nestles closely under the real
of the body (and when a-strut with
milk causes no little hindrance in the
lecomotion of the hind legs,) ending
in four well-placed teats about foul
inches in length. Occasionally there
may be one rudimentary teat; very
rarely there are two, an unerring indie,
to superior animal. Her spina
column ends in long, slender tail
with a superbly bushy switch trailing
the earth. Under the tail, and con
neCted with the hind cXtremites, i
the escutCheon. 1t is the reverse growth
of hair, large or small, of various forms
OF which SO much has been written
and to which SO much intrinsic meri
was once attached, but which has nov
been relegated to the past; but other
things being equal, | prefer a first
class Flandrine escutcheon. These
points, good enough in themselves, dc
not constitute irst-class dairy COW
until you add a thin, soft, oily, COLDER
Colored SKIN.
Upon fair, disinterested tests Prin
cess end leads Jerseys in a week
yield of first class butter Of 46 lbs
I21a o.; Oxford Kate follows will
SO lbs. 2 o., and Mary Anne of St
Lambert with Sc lbs. 12I OF; ane
Signals Lily Flagg leads the Jersey
in years test of 1,o47 lbs. a OF
With this array of points and figure:
we herald her as the best COW ths
world has ever produced; because
being of small stature, she will con
sumo the least amount consumed; be
cause, while naturally wild, by careful
handling she becomes the most docil
OF animals; because of the stamina Q
her constitution, whereby she is adapte,
to any locality the world over; AM
because the products of the dair
: afford more real comforts in tn
economy of this life than those fror
any other one source.