3-028-601 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Prize Jersey cows at the Bath and West of England Agricultural Show at Southampton, 1869. 'This breed of cows acquired additional importance...from the fact that the Americans had just been over in Jersey and purchased thirty-one head of bulls, cows, and heifers, at an average of £32. England generally imports about 1200 cows and heifers annually, of which two thirds come from Jersey...pale fawn and white and smoky fawn and white are often preferred, as giving the richer quality of milk...the laws about purity of breed are strictest in Jersey. Their table of points and butter marks are somewhat involved; and the points from which the islanders judge a butter-cow are the orange tint inside the ear and the hair-curl extending from the twist down to the udder. Prize cows must have twenty-nine points, but if they have two less they can be branded. Jerseys are somewhat delicate and difficult to fatten if they are lost to the dairy...The first prize for Jersey cows in calf or in milk bred in the island was awarded...to Mr. H. Compton, of Manor House, Lyndhurst, for his Duchess, and for that bred out of the island to Captain T. A. Maxse, R.N., for his Bon Bon. There were a second prize cow and a recommended one in each class'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.