An Auckland Jersey Herd.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 236, 7 October 1887, Page 7

An Auckland Jersey Herd.

I; , > ■ fjw "Sew Zealand Farmer.") a very pleasant visit Mimrf }frP. L. Wright, of Bombay, the train to Drury iwtniel^ttlie Station by Mr Wright, iiteii) enjoyable drive of five miles "StoGrat South Road behind a pair "* poniw, arrived a'; Ravensthorpe, «3formany years as " Martyn's Farm." |™*t»in«ixceljent condition, a3 hard Wfctethemosbexacting Jehu could "Hgnat contrast toother portions of Wwwad nearer Auckland. The land "mediate neighbourhood of Drury • N t Wity, judged by colonial ** PWg a heavy stiff clay. Land H ware cannot be well cultivated labour and expense for fJWppingparppse?, although, if the STttM wereavailable, we have no **W be made to produce excellent Vjmdf beans. Bat while more •(led is easily obtainable and t Z™ Produce remain so low .«t, there is do encouragement to i:p money, and labour in bringing »Wn} into cultivation. The being only 22 by roacC besides R, # w?bße » of raihva y com - K» ,f noHceda fine new hotel P fePrt?v nd near, y completed, W wA t,httle P ro &res 3 as the |?iU g 2- Not far ■ I-AjLT 3 ? O,SB ' * he property l^ftS* ,1 ' The?e were frJliS thecMt ' we ™re inRS-£ ditureinbonedUßt KSte^ l ? beautifully eifci*'sSi; { ™ mits hi e h Poeition, countr yIffi'Hib 1- cover?d wi & native llrf«Sr Partaking of a ■'<J.2fA« Bombay land, tit , ■?! !■ p,eased t0 own as to find a property WNibiH is now many • euoh troes as mifr »S ot h ed in the old IK ? dm If, °t' development, Sv , A3* 'i, Mr , ? right hun dreds of j e^Si" ; f year - Thon S ™tb, and we fv ti4 f 7 mm handsome HK^^Ca-T' , * hat a pity it worth whifc ■ll^i? preservHeV ,l 4S One tho «Sht «%*? »:«i ' " ls »Ny trees ■ now the '\ft M " apd macro-

carpa are generally planted to the exclusion of almost every other kind of tree. Almost from end to end of Ravensthorpe runs a beautiful rocky stream, whose clear waters rush and foam with gentle roar down many a picturesque waterfall. Within a hundred yards of the house you reach by a winding path, shadowed by treei and ferns, one of the prettiest of these falls, where the water nosily tumbles over a perpendicular wall of rock about twelve feet high into a deep and wide pool, over which fern trees hang their graceful fronds, and to which the light of sun or moon can only come broken by tho shadows of (shelter ing trees growing thickly around the romantic spot. But we must now como to the special object of our visit, which was tho inspection of Mr Wright's herd or pure-bred Jersey cattle, numbering some eight or ten head. After lunch Mr Wright snowed ua round tho paddocks, and the first animal to claim our attention was a four mouths old bull, that has been christened Bondsman. He is a decidedly well-shaped and well-grown youngster, fawn coloured, by Chop&tickp, dam Beauty, by Pride of Australia. He gives every promise of developing into a handsome bull. His sire Chopsticks was bought about two years ago from hi? breeder Mr T. Morrin, having been got by the imported bull, Cicero 2nd, out of Milkmaid. The sire cf the la3t named bull was the well known Cicero Ist, who was sold in England for 600 guineas to go to America. Chopsticks is light fawn in colour, and shows in his points the well-bred animnl he is. He is not a good doer, however, Mr Wright told us, being of a restless temperament, which has the effect of keeping him rather low in flesh, so that he did not look at his best. He shows a nice golden hue of Bkin, and has thrown some capital stock which, it we mistake not, will surpass their eire in good looks. Another bull, that we like better, is Grasshopper, bred by Mr Wright. He is by Cicero 2nd, the sire of Chopsticks, from Gazelle 2nd, to be noticed later on. In colour he is a dark silver fawn, and he was calved in June 1886, and is therefore about 15 months old. He built more stoutly than Chonaticks, and is evidently of more robust constitution. In this animal'Mr Wright has a bull which we balieve will give him every satisfaction as a breeder. Gazelle 2nd, the dam of Grasshopper, we regard as the second best of Mr Wright s cows. She is by Pride of Australia, resembling her son in colour, with awell-snaped bog, rich o-olden coloured skin, and a good head. She is perhaps a 'little wanting in silkiness of hair, but in early spring, after having been running out to grass all the winter, is not.a favourable season for judging such a point. We now come to Beauty, a lawn and white cow, bred by Mr T. Morrin in January 1883 by Prideof Australia,dam Dairymaid, by Duke. This is a nice shaped animal, surpassing the last, named in eilkiness ot hair, bet she lacks the rich golden hue of tho skin seen in Gazelle 2nd, and has.a rather bottle-shaped bag. At the two last South Franklin Shows, she has been placed by the judges before the latter, but mistakenly so, as we think- . ... Another cow is Mazurka 4th, bred by Mr T. Morrin, by White Socks, dam Martha. Beyond the above we find we have omitted taking notes coucerniug this animal. Moochie, a two year old heifer, by Cicero 2nd. clam Mazurka 4th, wo consider the pick of the herd, She calved her first calf

about half an hour after our arrival. When we went to see her in the paddock wo found that the calf, a bull, had unfortunately been badly injured apparently immediately after birth. Aβ the injury must evidently prove fatal, and the poor thing, was in great pain it was mercifully put out of its misery. Moochie is fawn coloured, rich golden skin, with a beautifully shaped bag, and pplendid milk mirror. A very handsome head, with beautifully even well-turned horns, fine limbs and tail, and well proportioned body, go to make up as pretty a Jersey heifer as any breeder would wish to tsee. She will, we believe, compete at tho next South Franklin and Ellerslieshows, and will be hard to beat if all goes well with her in the meantime. As ehowiug her docility of disposition we may mention that directly her calf wa? removed we saw her driven up to the stockyard, and she went into the bail almost as quietly as an old cow. She was milked in our presence straight away, with never a leg-rope on her. We may mention that all Mr Wright's herd, both Jerseys and halfbred*, are as gentle and docile as any animals can be. Several of them allowed us to walk right up to them in tho paddock and handle them quite freely. Of course, this is the result of kind treatment, which animals always repay with perfect confidence and gentle behaviour in return. There now only remains to be noticed Gossip, a handsome, light fawn, heifer calf, by Chopsticks from Gazelle 2nd, third dam Martha.

Besides these Mr Wright has several grade Jerseys. These make capital milkers, tind most of them come very dark in colour, which is probably a reversion owing to the cross to the characteristic dark colour of the Brittany cattle, which are generally believed to be the original ancestors of the Channel Island breed.