Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume], August 31, 1876, Page 4, Image 4

About Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
LIVE STOCK.
THE JERSEYS.
We have just risen from the perusal of that
charming book, A Farmer's Vacation, by
George E. Waring, Jr., and have been es
pecially interested in his account of " Old
Jersey" and the Jersey cattle. Col. Waring
is himself a breeder of Jerseys, and describes
them in their native home with the enthusi
asm of an amateur. He, however, is not so
prejudiced in their favor that he can not
view them with a critic's eye, for he says :
" Even now there are to be found in Jersey
a very large number of ill-formed, slab-sided
cows, hollow-backed, cat-hammed, and slop
ing at the rump, which show how largely
the points of beauty have been neglected."
This lack of beauty, which is noticeably in
this country as well as in Jersey, the Colo
nel ascribes to the fact that the Jersey farm
ers, till within a recent period, have had on
ly one objective point in view, and that has
been the largest and richest production of
milk. The demand for Jerseys in England
and America has stimulated the breeders of
the island to improve the gpneral form of
their stock, though to this day the great
point in Jersey breeding is the production
of butter. Hitherto the farmers of this
country have been inclined to regard the
Jerseys as fancy stock, better adapted for a
family cow, and for gentlemen farmers than
for general dairy purposes, but the impres
sion is gaining ground that where butter is
the objective point of the dairy an infusion
of Jersey blood adds greatly to the value of
the. product, and possibly we cannot do the
agricultural readers of the T/mes a greater
service than by fr-nishing them with some
of the facts stated by Col. Waring, adding
such observations as have come to our own
notices
And firstly, as to the origin of the Jersey
breed. Their history is not recorded with
all the minuteness of that of William the
Conqueror; but, like him, they probably
came from Normandy. They still possess
many of the characteristics of the cattle of
the notth of France; but hludreds of years
--possibly a. thousand--have i6sol t
~Jerseys so that they ar iio~ti8stinct race
hile in France the cows are still more or,
less used for work as well as milk, the Jer
sey 'mers have. made milk the" exclusive
object, and do not even allow their. cows to
roam. in search of food, but keep them teth
ered or in stable the year round. To this
lct aCol. Waring; is inclined to attribute the
extreme richness of their" milk, and the want
of muscle and force in the animal.
SAs this is an important point in dairy man
agement, and greatly favors the growing
practice of soil feeding, we give- the Colo
nel's theory in his own words: "It seems
prbbile that the development of muscle by
ph ysale'xereise tends to direct the nutri
ment of the food to the formation of flesh,
)easing less to enlarge the quantity and en
rich the quality of the milk. Perhaps, too,
the degree to which the fat-formting por
tions of the food are converted into cream in
the udder bears, some relation to the demand
.which the lung action makes upon these
substances to supply eabon, fo# oxidation
'n thbe :,process of breathing. It is a well
known fact that a cow driven long distances
to, and, from pasture,.produces .less butter.
than one leadlng a more Indolent life, and
the interence is that the increased respira
b~loitthis. case consumes the-hydrocarbens
ef thefood, Which if not so destroyed, would
be converted into butter. Assuming this to
be-true, may- we not infer that an animal
whose lungs have been enlarged by genera
tlons:of work or active exercise, breathing
more largely because of greater lung capac
ity, stdlas and expires a larger amount of
:the elementsrequired foi. the produo
Ione'f-lutter? However true this. theory,
the te on whichbl it is based are unques
tionable.'
This th ory of Col . Waring about the
eause..f thi great and rich milk secretion of
the Jersey cattle is dne well woradt of the
consideration of every owner oea cow. We
have long been convinced that most breeds
of cattle had to work too hard to live and
breathe, to put on much: tsh, or secrete
tauch milk. Roaming gver~ lare3 and clhse
,ased pastwre each day may be oonsdered
gt: wsrk, but It is work, nevertheless, and
B1 Sta. condmUjave to the development of
muscle than milk, and much of the carbon I
of the food, the main thing in the composi- 1
tion of butter, is breathed away in the form
of carbonic acid. If we wish to develop ]
lungs and muscles in a cow, give her a big 4
range and tell her go graze or die, and do 1
this for a succession of generations and the
thing will be accomplished in thorougbred
style; but if, on the contrary, the object is
the conversion of food into rich milk, thenr
is no better method than that pursued b
the Jersey farmers. In order to understand
precisely what this method is we quote the
following from Mr. LeCornu's essay on Jer
sey agriculture:
"In order to derive the greatest possible
advantage from his cows, the Jersey farmer
endeavors to arrange for them to calve dur
ing the first three months of the year, that
is, when vegetation speedily advances. In
the winter, cattle are always housed at
night. When they come in (about 4 o'clock
in the afternoon), they are milked, after
which each receives about three-fourths of a
bushel of roots and a little hay. The fol
lowing morning they are attended to at 6
o'clock, or even before that hour. Having
been milked they again receive the same al
lowance of roots and hay, and at 9 o'clock
are turned out, if fine, in some shelterd field
or orchard. Cows are dried one month or
six weeks before calving. Bran mashes are
given to them about the time of parturition,
and continued for a fortnight after the calt
is born. At no other thne do they receive
this food. Two weeks or so after calving, if
the wekher be very fine, they are turned
out to grass in the day time. It is the cus
tom in all the Channel islands to tether cat
tie. The tethers are made of small chain;
a spike about one foot long is attached at
one end and .driven into the ground; the
other end is tied to the cow's halter, the lat
ter being made fast at the base of her horns.
The length of these tethers is about four
yards. During the day cattle are frequent
ly moved, generally every three hours.
Drink is given them in the morning on leav
ing the stable, and at noon; in the summer
they receive it also in the evening. About
May they are allowed to remain out at
ber, when the system of housing reconm
mences. During the summer cows are fre
quently milked three times a day, and when
the weather becomes very warm they are
brought into the stable for a few hours, else
they would be tormented by flies. A cow is
in her prime at six years ofage, and contin
ues good till ten years old, A good cow, on
the average, gives, fourteen quarts of milk
per day,. or eight or nine pounds of butter
in one week, but that is above the average
figure."
It must be remembered that the climate of
Jersey is very different from that of New
England or the Middle States. The lati
tude is higher, being a little above 4)9 , but,
being surrounded by water, and receiving
the warm breezes of the Gulf Stream, the
grass is green all winter; Geraniums and
fuchsias need no housing, and against south
walls the orange ripens its fruit. The slope
of the island is also from north to* south,
which fact adds much toathe effect of the
sun's heat. +rhe heat of the summer is, how
ever, tempered by cool sea breezes, so that
no extreme of heat or cold is suffered at any
season of the year. The water is also excel
lent, pure springs gushing outrof the rocks
everywhere, and there is hardly 4 house
that has not a spring or brook near it. Jer
sey is the paradise of cattle breeders,..and it
is no wonder that a good herd.ofbutter cows
is indigenous to its soil.
Another noticeable feature of the island is
that the farms: are small, not more than six
or eight in the whole island containing over
fifty acres, and the usual size of the larger
farms being from fifteen to twenty acres, and
the majority of the farmers making a com.
fortable living from much less Mund--some
times fromn two. to three acres. *Of course
the soil is fertile, and seaweed, and other fer
tilizers are used ungparingly.. Le Cornu
says that the large farms (twenty acres) will
unusually be dlevotedto the following crops:
Grass, ten acres; turnips, two acres ; man
golds, one acre; parsnips, one; carrots,
three-quarters of an acre;. potatoe,, two
acres,- and wheat, three and one-fo'uth,
acres. Hay and roots, it will be seen, occu
py the greater portion of the land ofthe Jer
sey farrirs, as they should that of all dai-.
rymen and stock-raisers. These crops fed
to the best butter-cows in the world, whose
progeny are eagerly sought for at high
prices, make the Jersey farmers a most in
dependent class of men, though doing busi
ness on what seems to most Americans a
small scale. It is with them literally "a
little land well tilled and a single wife well
willed," for the wife of a Jersey farmer is
the dairy-woman, having the care of the
cows as well as the making of the butter.
We have been often asked what claim the
Jersey cattle had to being thoroughbred.
This point Col. Waring settles definitely in
the book to which twv ave alluded, and we
cannot do better than to quote his own
words : "Before the beginning of this cen
tury, say more than a hundred years ago,
the cattle of Jersey had a well-recognized
character, as a distinct race, peculiarly
adapted for butter-making. As long ago as
the year 1789 they were considered so supe
rior for the uses required in Jersey, to any'
other known herd, that an act of the local
legislature was passed, by which the impor
tation of any foreign-bred cattle, cow, heifer,
bull, or calf was prohibited, under heavy
money penalty. Every animal so arriving
Was decreed to be immediately slaughtered,
and its flesh to be given to the poor. Sub
sequent enactments have been equally rig
orous, and no foreign cattle are allowed to
be landed in Jersey except as butcher's
meat." There can be no question, there
fore, as to the purity of the stock imported
from this island. To be thoroughbred, how
ever, implies something more than mere pu
rity of blood, and it must-be confessed that
the Jersey farmers have not always been so
scrupulous' about points as about blood.
The milking quality has ever been the chief
point with them, and of late years more at
tention has been paid to form and other con
siderations. In 1834.a committee of the Jer
sey Agricultural Society selected two of the
finest cows on the island as models, one of
them considered perfect in her head and
forequarters, and the other in her udder and
hindquarters, and from these two models a
seale of 34 points was made which should
constitute a perfect animal. Since the es
tablishment of this scale there has been a
great Improvement in the general appear
aac-Elsebook ont helehiand, though fash
ion there, as everywhere, is a tyrant and
has sometimes run away with good sense.
For instance, the color of the Jerseys was
formerly a minor eonsideration, a variety of
colors prevailing, and mixed fawn and white
predominating, buat within a few years fash
ion demanded a solid dark color but the
Jersey society discouraged this. olly, and
the mania has in a measure eeased.'*
We have given so much space to the in
teresting statements of CoL Waring and Mr.
Le Cornu that we have now room to add
comments and our own observations; nor Is
this necessary. The Jersey cows speak for
themselves, not so much in their looks as in
the milk-pail and the churn. As a family
cow, and as a pure butter cow the Jersey
must be ranked as No. 1, and aol. Waring
has done the country a service in his clear
statements of the history of the breed and
their treatment in their native hotne.-Ata
Hyde in New York Times.
SWEENEY.
I have amule: that is very lame; the lame
aess seems to be in the shoulders, which are
greatly wasted. The animal has worked
hard at a threshing machine, but has been
idle for almost a. year. 2. I have a horse
that is lame in the left foreleg. The difficul
ty seems to be in the back ligaments; he is
slhghtly knee-sprung; the cords of the leg
are drawn very tight. Be good enough to
prescribe for both him and mule. Anes.--1.
Yourmule suffers from, atrophy, the prima
ry cause of which is the lameness you men
tion ; inactivity of a part, obstruction of its
blood vessels, failure of its own vital energy,
etc.,frequently cause atrophy, or what is
commonly called sweeney. In yoar case in
activity was the exciting cause. Treat
ment: Wash the part frequently with cold
water, apply a great deal of friction, hand
rubbing; when perfectly dry, apply, say
three times daily, with the hand, some soap
liniment, which, with the friction, will as
sist in restoringthe vitality of the part. The
mule should be liberally fed on good food.
2. Apply a smart blister where the cords
are unnaturally tight or swollen;. this, if
necessary, you can repeat after two or three
weeks, and three weeks after the last blister
has been applied, rub. in goose oil eveFry
morning for two or three weeks. The bis
ter may be composed of one part of pow
dered cantharides to fonr of lard.--sýrpi ' o
tn$~i&e~8
STOCK tITEMS.-"
It is said that two new and distinct breeds
of sheep have lately been introduced into
England from the west coast of South
America. The first are tow fine, white
wooled sheep, each having four massive
horns, two of which have a forward *curve
over the he head, while the other two curve
downward under the eyes, giving the head
a singular appearance. Of the second, which
are said to be a species between the llama
and alpaca, there are three, one male and
two females, which are thickly covered with
long, dark brown, but exceedingly fine hair
or wool, which is highly prized by the na
tive Indians for the manufacture of their
more delicate fabrics. The male stands
about three teet high at the shoulder.
In a late issue of the Kentucky Live Stock
Record we find the following item in the
English column of their journal. Speaking
of the 24th Duke of Airdrie at Elmhurst
Hall it says:
"This regal gentleman of magnificent
proportions, and lordly bearing, has his en
tire time and manly vigor employed in care
ing tor the highest bred dames and damsels
of England's shorthorn court. Among the
long list of bulls that have crossed the At
lantic. this one raised by A. J. Alexander at
Woodburn Stud Farm, Ky., and exported
in 1875 by the Messrs. Fox is conceded to be
the very best, and many claim him to be the
model bull in the world."
This bull, spoken of so highly in England,
is a half brother of the ine young bull,
Duke of Gem. Duchess, brought to this coun
try this spring by the Parker pros., and who
can now be found on their farm five miles
south of Columbia. Duke of Gem. Duchess
was bought of A. J. Alexander, and there is
no finer in the West.--,tatesman
LIVE STOCK DIRECTORY.
JOHN MORGAN.
This celebrated stallion will stand for mares the
present season, at
MY STABLE, IN DIAMOND CITY,
John Morgan is a beautiful dark chestnut-sorrel,
neat, and trimly built, sixteen and one-half hands
high, weighs 1480 pounds, and is six years old this
spring." He was sired by a pure-bred Norman
horse, and his dam was a thoroegh-bred Morgan
mare. Any person having donubts about my horse
being the best breeder in Meagher eoasty, can
IEXA1MINE HIS COLTS.
And satisfy themselves. They are the only recom
mendation necessary.
T ER S: *
Single leap, - - - $10.00
The season, - - - - 20.00
J. LANEY.
May 18, 1876-26-tf.
I will be at Canyon Ferry on hursday . May 25,
with my stallion, and invite all ownersof stallion
to meet me upon that occasion and compare p.ts..
I will also be at Canton on Saturday,. May27, for
the same purpose, and hope the owners of stallions
of note will be promptly on hand. J..LANE Y.
A CARD.
I dreire.tostateto stookmen throughout Montana,
that in accordance with ag challenge, I was prompt
ly on hand at Canton,. on the 8th ulL,, to compare
my horse with any other horse in Meagher county,
whether pedigreedr or not, and finding myself alone,.
without a single competitor, I unbesitatingly pro
nounce hin champion,, an ask breeders to calland
examine him and.his colts. J...AXNY.
Having been solicited.by a nwmber of adairers of
John Morgan,.I have determined to visilt FJ. Iur
uis' place, near Camp Baker, once a week during
the season, anad give the Smith- river farmers and
breeders an opportunity to breed their mnares to the
best stallion in the county. John Morgan will be at
E. J. Harris' stable on Wednesday, Thursday and
Prida V of each week. J. LANEY..
G B LEE.
Thiaflnely bre stallon wfltatand fr mares the
ensuing season
AT THE RANCQ IOF CoBARR SMITH,,
Two miles above Conteivilla,. on the Missouri val
ley, fromblay 1st to August 1st, 1.76 at
$15 T- RE SEASOI.
Pasturage free of charge. Accidents at owner'l
risk.
DESCRIPTION
BOB LEE.is a beautiful brown, nearly sixxteen
hands high,. ei hselev n hundred ad.sevartyfvl
pounds, of fnue orm.an& carriage.
IPEDI G IEEs
Bob Lee was sired by Rifleman; be beaiported
Glenaoeo Bob's dam was b T pleon Join; he
by old Timlo; y Sir irohyand he by iU
ported Diomed. .d l gBackburn *.
Whp ha b1 im _
bray 4"~~'h` i -