The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-09
PURE BRED JERSEY COWS.
How the Race is Preserved from Mixture
by Rigid Island LEGISLATION.

PURE BRED JERSEY COWS.
How the Race is Preserved from Mixture
by Rigid Island Legislation.
In the island of Jersey, for upward
Of one hundred years, legislation has
forbidden, under heavy penalties, the
introduction into the island of any
and every member of the bovine race;
the increase, therefore, is confined
wholly to the births of thoroughbred
cattle on this island. A single excep-
ton is made in favor of steers for beef
purposes. Whatever, therefore, of
merit there is in keeping breed strict
ly pure the Jersey possesses in SUPER
eminent degree. Bred upon little
island where no. other breed of horned
cattle was allowed, by rural popula-
ton who were interested in the milk
only as to it's butter content-butter
! (outside of vegeta bles for market) be-
ing the money crop, with but little, if
any demand for milk-it was natural
that she should be bred with the view
of producing butter The result of
breeding for generati tons for a specific
object has been to make the Jersey
''butter" cow. The Jersey is the most
thoroughbred of domestic animals, the
long line of special breeding fixing the
characteristics SO strongly that every
animal of the breed possesses the he
redity or prepotency to transmit its
own qualities to its offspring; and here
in lies one of the vast superiorities
OF the Jersey In her native habitat
her surroundings, conditions of life,
habits etc, have always tended to
make the Jersey butter cow; but it
was reserved to the American breeder,
by upward of forty years of devoted
skill and untiring application, to de-
velop her to her greatest capacity. AS
a result of his systematic endeavors the
| American bred Jersey of to-day is more
| than so per cent. superior in butter
capacity to that of twenty years ago.
We often hear of the phenomenal rec
ord breakers, which shows what a
highly bred, specialized cow may do
under scientific high pressure systems
of feeding, also the wonderful progress
our breeders have made in the art of
breeding for purpose; but the greatest
glory of the Jersey lies not in these alb
normal yields, wonderful though they
be, but in not less wonderful averages
obtained in every state in our glorious
union.
The Jerseys are the grandest, most
beautiful, most useful, most fashiona-
bic as well as most profita BILE stock for
the family and the dairy throughout
the whole world. They show their
superiority not only as the greatest
milk producers or the greatest butter
makers, but also as universal dairy
COWS, adapting themselves to
any and all climates We find
the Jersey at her best while
Drawing the rigors of Canadian
winter, beating the whole worlds
record as a butter machine in the hot,
dry climate Of the sunny south, retain
ing her health and vigor equally on the
granite hills of New England, the
plains of Texas. the foothills of the
Rocky mountains and in the soft, balmy
climate of California. Another peculiar
characteristic of the Jersey is her habit
Of persistent milking; she is an ever
lasting ''stayer." hence she is adapted
to continuous usefulness in the dairy.
She is likewise early to breed and very
prolific. Precisely the same treatment
is required by the Jersey as is required
by good COW of any other breed
40 more, no less. But good many
COWS of other breeds are, when COM
pared with the little eight hundred
pound Jersey, very large, being fifty to
one hundred per cent. larger. 1t is a
a well-esta blished fact that on the av-
erage cattle eat in proportion to their
live weight, such being the case it is easy
to see that COW weighing from one
thousand two hundred to one thousand
FIVE hundred pounds will eat proper
tionately more than one weighing but
eight hundred; it is likewise an incon-
trovertible fact that the food necessary
to enable the little Jersey to I'LL the
pail would be barely sufficient to sus-
tain life in the larger animal.-Savan-
nah News.