BREEDING FOR BUTTER.

Western Star, Issue 374, 21 August 1880, Page 8 (Supplement)

BREEDING FOR BUTTER.

Next in importance for the farmer to good grasses and grains, which we are well supplied with, is a good dairy cow. And what is a good cow ? Are our native New England cows of to-day the moat profitable producers of the . best butter ? Most certaiul not. They eat a large quantity of food and produce a small quantity onlv of butter, and not of the first quality. Ho v can we best improve the quality of our butter and the amount each cow makes ? First, keep only good cows. Second, breed only from the best. Third, use only a good bufi of some thoroughbred race. •' From .what thoroughbred race shall we select our bull in breeding for butter? From the Jerseys ; because, first they are the most profitable producers ot butter of the best quality ; and second, because they are better adapted than any other breed tor crossing with our native cows.. I The following are some of the claims made for the Jerseys as the best butter breed ; 1. They are a race bred in the one direction of “ the best butter,” for over a century, by a people possessing English brains and French Industry, near the best butter

market, in one of the most equable of climates and surrounded by e very condition favorable to the fullest development of their peculiar power, viz., putting fat in the bag. They are fine in bone, muscle, hide and hair, quiet in disposition, and while good eaters are good digesters,'and possess, as a race characteristic, the'power of putting good butter globules in the milk as largely as the Shorthorn has of putting flesh on tho body or the Ayrshire 'abundant milk in the bag. 2. They possess as fully as any breed the power of transmitting tluir desirable qualities to their off-pring; 3. Their smaller bodies require less food, to build them up and keep Them in repair. 4. Coming in to profit earlier, they "make a year’s saving in food, care and 'protection. 5. They can stand more grain without "drying off.” 6; They have'shown a power of adapting themselves to the varied food and climate of all parts of the United States. 7. They are prolific and long-lived. 8. They are the most persistent milkers of any breed. 9. They will make more butter on the same food than' any other breed. 10. Their britter has a higher color the year round than-any other, s 11. It has the highest flavor and the finest groin. 12. The butter globules of the milk of the Jersey have the greatest average size, and they are more uniform in size, u fn consequence of this size-and uniformity of the globules, Jersey milk throws up its cream more quickly and .completely than any other milk, and, as a result; exposes it the shortest time-to internal decomposition or exposure to odours from outside, i 13. These large uniform globules churn easier and quicker, and so asave,the grain of the butter. 14. Butter of this large and uniform globule can be ■ worked drier without becoming “ salvy," and so it will be firmer in the dog days than any others 15. Jersey milk will imake excellent cheese. v:> Their veal and beef are good in color, flavor, arid texture, arid,,they make strong and active oxen. 16; The milk of the Jersey, being richer than other milk, requires less time and; expense for milking and less room arid expense for setting. r Many annual yields for herds of a dozen to fifty Jersey cows can be found atifrom i 250 to 300 lb of butter per cow ; and annual individual yields run up to 400, 500 and'even 700 ib, and this on 20 lb of hay and 4 quarts of grain. The Jersey cows weigh from 750 to 900 lb, and 4 to 12 quarts of their milk will make 1 lb of butter. , • ■ v ::T .1 ; i , The Jersey bull is well adapted for union with native cows, in breeding for butter,, possessing—(l) the foregoing characteristics of hia butter-making race; (2) great prepotency, or power of iriipress-ing-upon his offspring from native cows all of these desirable butter producing characteristics ; arid (3), being of a face smaller, than that of the native cow, he is, accord* ing to well established laws of breeding, better adapted than a larger bull for begetting a race fine in form and constitution, as well as strong in butter making qualities —Cblraan’s Rural World.