Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/409

CATTLE. development of the latter more of the characteristics of the parent stock of Normandy have been retained. They were both formerly called Alderneys. The Guernseys are rather larger than the Jerseys, stronger boned, and are claimed to be hardier. They are light in color, with darker shades approaching brown, and have a yellow skin. The milk of both breeds is unusually rich in fat, the fat-globules being large and separating readily in creaming. The Guernseys are liberal milkers. At home the average cow is expected to produce 5000 pounds of milk and 300 pounds of butter a year without high feeding. In the United States they are usually fed higher, and respond accordingly. There are records of several herds which have averaged over 6000 pounds of milk and 350 pounds of butter a year. Individual cows have produced 10,000, and nearly 13,000 pounds, of milk, and 500 to 700 pounds of butter a year. The Jerseys are the smallest of the better dairy breeds, though in the United States they have been considerably increased in size. The color varies from cream to various shades of fawn, tan, and mouse-color, dark brown and even black. They have beautiful heads, with intelligent faces, and rather small, close horns. The body is well rounded, with capacity for food and breeding, and the udder is of good size, with highly developed milk-veins. They are irregular in outline and thin in flesh. Like the Guernseys, they are not large, but persistent milkers, and their milk is the richest of any breed. For many years they have been bred especially for butter-production, although American breeders have striven with considerable success to increase the milk-yield without diminishing the quality. Good herds produce from 3500 to 4500 pounds of milk a year, and several herd records show averages of 6000 and 7000 pounds per cow. Single cows produce 1000, 1200 pounds of butter, and even more. There are numerous records of 25 to 30 pounds of butter a week, and individual records run all

the way from 600 to 800, and even 1000 pounds of butter in a year. Jerseys are heavy feeders, and as a rule will bear high feeding and forcing for long periods unusually well. Brown Bessie, the famous champion butter cow of the Chicago World's Fair dairy test, averaged over 40 pounds of milk a day for five months, and made 3 pounds of butter a day several times. The Holsteins, or Holstein-Friesians, of north Holland and Friesland, are black and white, irregularly marked, but not mixed, large in frame, strong, and usually in good flesh. Their legs are long and rather small, and the udder is often of extraordinary size, in conformity with the reputation of the breed for enormous milk-production. It is not unusual for a cow to give more than her own eight in milk every month for ten or twelve consecutive months, and there are numerous instances of yields of 100 pounds or more a day, and 20,000 to 30,000 pounds a year, although 40 to 60 pounds a day, or 7500 to 8000 pounds a year, is considered an average. But the milk is usually relatively poor in fat as compared with that of other breeds, and does not always come up to the State or municipal standards in this respect. The fat-globules are quite small and the cream does not rise readily on setting. There are some families of Holsteins, however, which give milk of fully average richness and are profitable butter-producers.



Dentition of a young Jersey cow, showing the small incisors and canines crowded in the extremity of the lower jaw (none in the upper jaw), and the great grinders (molars and premolars).

The Red Polls are a comparatively new breed, resembling the Devons, hornless, and inclined to the beef form. They are only fair dairy cattle, being in the class of breeds which aim to serve the dual purpose of milk and beef production. The Shorthorns, described above as beef cattle, although a typical beef breed, are to some extent dual-purpose animals, and some families have been notable for milk-production. In the best milking strains the cows are rather more ‘rangy’ and angular in outline than the beef types, with large, hairy udders. The Shorthorns made a surprisingly good showing in the World's Fair breed test (1893), and records of several herds in the United States show a milking period of 375 days and an average production of 6500 pounds of milk. Formerly certain dairy breeds were considered especially adapted to cheese-making, and others to butter-making, and the two qualities were supposed to be to a certain extent incompatible. The agricultural experiment stations have shown, however, that this is not the case, but that the value of milk for cheese-making as well as for butter-making is measured by its fat content. The richness of the milk in fat is to some extent a breed characteristic, although within the breed the variations in this respect are quite wide in the case of different cows. The following averages of a large number of analyses of milk from cows of different breeds are something of an indication of the composition: