rts a very large
proportion of her food into milk. So remarkable is this fact, that all
dairy farmers who have any experience on the point, agree in stating
that _an Ayrshire cow generally gives a larger return of milk for the
food consumed than a cow of any other breed_. The absolute quality may
not be so great, but it is obtained at a less cost; and this is the
point upon which the question of profit depends. The best milkers which
have been known in this country were grade Ayrshires, larger in size
than the pure bloods, but still sufficiently high grades to give certain
signs of their origin. This grade would seem to possess the advantage of
combining, to some extent, the two qualities of milking and adaptation
to beef; and this is no small recommendation of the stock to farmers
situated as American farmers are, who wish for milk for some years and
then to turn over to the butcher.

THE JERSEY.

These cattle are now widely known in this country. Many of them have
been imported from an island of the same name in the British Channel,
near the coast of France, and they may now be considered, for all
practical purposes, as fully acclimated. They were first introduced,
upward of thirty years ago, from the channel islands, Alderney,
Guernsey, and Jersey.

This race is supposed to have been originally derived from Normandy, in
the northern part of France. The cows have been long celebrated for the
production of very rich milk and cream, but till within the last
twenty-five or thirty years they were comparatively coarse, ugly, and
ill-shaped. Improvements have been very marked, but the form of the
animal is still far from satisfying the eye.

The head of the pure Jersey is fine and tapering, the cheek small, the
throat clean, the muzzle fine and encircled with a light stripe, the
nostril high and open; the horns smooth, crumpled, but not very thick at
the base, tapering and tipped with black; ears small and thin, deep
orange color inside; eyes full and placid; neck straight and fine; chest
broad and deep; barrel hoofed, broad and deep, well ribbed up; back
straight from the withers to the hip, and from the top of the hip to the
setting of the tail; tail fine, at right angles with the back, and
hanging down to the hocks; skin thin, light color, and mellow, covered
with fine soft hair; fore legs short, straight and fine below the knee,
arm swelling and full above; hind quarters long and well filled; hind
legs short and