AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 16 July 1910, Page 8

AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

IN PRAISE OF THE JERSEY. r ADDEESS BY A, BREEDER. At the annual meeting of the Now Zealand Jersey Cattle 1 Breeders' Association, at New Plymouth, on Wednesday, Mr. E. Griffiths, read a paper entitled "The.Jersey as a Dairy-Cow." For upwards of one hundred and twenty years, said Mr. Griffiths, the island of Jersey lias prohibited the importation of cattle of any kind to its shores, and thereby jealously guarded the purity of the strain of dairy cattle. Though these animals had their origin in Normandy, they were later transplanted to Jersey, and the Jersey Islanders set themselves the task of not only maintaining the standard by prohibiting importations, but of further improving it. For generation after generation they studied and practised selection and breeding, always aiming at a 'higher butter production, and, at the several shows held on the island every year, the keenest competition takes place lif the classes for butter production. The cows aro milked on the show grounds, and the milk is carefully weighed ami churned. These contests show up the heavy butter producers, and their sons naturally become very popular sires. Every year this makes a step in the direction of progress, and every heifer calf is bred'with the intention that she will 'be a greater producer of butter than her dam, while every bull calf is reared in the hopo that he will be the sire cf greater cows than his darru

What is a dairy cow?- To us in New Zealand she must be (a) the most economical producer of milk for manufacturing into buttor or cheese; (b) a cow which will give the greatest annual not £ s. d. return to her owner; (c) a' cow which will respond to the' good treatment which is possible in the dairying lauds of New Zealand; (A) a cow of sound constitution; («) a cow that can transmit her profitable qualities to her offspring with reasonable certainty. The economical production of butterfut is the great aim of every dairyman. He is there to make money, aud, if ho is shown a way of improving his methods and increasing his income, he will readily adopt any new course which appears reasonable, but, in the matter of the best breed of cows to keep, life is too short for every farmer to experiment with all breeds of dairy cows so as to find out which is the most profitable, and, therefore, he is dependent upon the public tests which have been held for this purpose. Without doubt tho greatest breed contest ever held took place at the great St. Louis Exhibition, in 1905. Tho Shorthorn, Holsteiu, Brown Swiss, and Jersey Societies of America selected tho very best animals from their respective breeders. The auimals were sent to St. Louis, aud cared for under most advantageous conditions .for 120 days (foui: months). Their milk was weighed and tested, and the daily food consumed by each animal was carefully recorded. All of these records were, supervised by Professor Farrington, and the result of tha contest was an easy win'for the Jerseys. They produced more butter than any other breed, at a cost per pound' below that of any other breed. ~ The. old idea that Jerseys are delicate, and 'without constitutions, is quite exploded. In the most exposed parts of Taranaki both purebi'ed and grade Jerseys are giving excellent results, and, apart from productiveness as a dairy cow, the' Jersey possesses tho power of reproducing profitable qualities in its offspring with reasonable certainty.