The Tennessee JerseyBy W. J. Webster.NOTE.—Mr. W. J. Webster developed two of the three greatest cows of the world to championship honors, and has made more great churn tests than, perhaps, any other living man. His experience is of the practical kind.—Ed.
By W. J. Webster.
NOTE.—Mr. W. J. Webster developed two of the three greatest cows of the world to championship honors, and has made more great churn tests than, perhaps, any other living man. His experience is of the practical kind.—Ed.
This has become a well-known name among Jersey cattle breeders of the United States and frequently used in advertising strains of blood by the various owners. This is easily accounted for by the high stand taken by Jersey cows owned, developed and bred in Tennessee. Many years ago the pioneer breeders of this favorite dairy breed of cattle, Major Campbell Brown, Judge Thos. H. Malone, M. C. Campbell, M. M. Gardner, and the writer of this article, W. J. Webster, built their herds on a very solid foundation:
First—Constitution and ability to stand long continued high feed.
Second—Richness of milk as well as quantity, but with the goal always centered on production of butter as ascertained by actual test, without any instrument, calculation or guess work. The churn was adopted as a test system.
Third—Beauty, symmetry and general conformity. We early in our course of breeding determined that beauty of cattle should not be ignored, but was an element certainly in the sale. Therefore, Tennessee Jerseys were bred for all these qualities claimed and I do not think that anywhere in the United States a more uniform or more beautiful set of animals could be found.
The Middle Basin of Tennessee is especially adapted to the breeding, rearing and developing of this cow. We have here the elements of the soil entering into the blood of the animal which I think develops them more highly than in any other portion of the United States. We have lime rock and bone phosphate of lime entering into the water they drink, and the bluegrass and other grasses that they eat, corn, oats and hay consumed by them, and also mingled with enough iron so that the very highest opportunities are available for their growth. This thought applies not aloneto the Jersey cow but to the whole animal kingdom as evidenced by the fact that some of the finest race horses in the world, either running or pacing horses, have been developed in this Middle Basin of Tennessee. In point of climate we are exceptionally well located, all things considered, about the same as the Isle of Jersey, the original home of the Jersey cow. No wonder then that with the additional advantages of our soil mentioned above the Jersey has developed wonderfully in Tennessee.
The question is sometimes asked why prices have declined the last twelve or fifteen years. My reply is that prices have not declined all over the United States, but that the old breeders have dropped out in Tennessee and that there are now very few breeders in Tennessee paying any attention to the development of the Jersey cow. Recently Messrs. Overton and Gardner, of Nashville, have begun to pay more attention to it and I predict that if this is continued the prices will again rise for they have not fallen in New York and other centers, but the present year sales are higher than they have ever been at auction, as shown by the general average at the Cooper sale of over six hundred dollars per head, a single animal bringing ten thousand dollars and that in a sale of over a hundred animals. So it is not a declining in the prices of the breed cattle but simply a lack of driving their interests in Tennessee.
The system of testing Jerseys and knowing exactly what they were capable of doing did more to develop them than anything else. The American is always an eminently practical man and wants to know what he is doing instead of guessing. The Tennessee breeders inaugurated this test system, Messrs. Campbell Brown, Thos. H. Malone, M. M. Gardner and W. J. Webster having edited the first compilation of test in the United States as a venture of their own and at their own risk and expense; then turned it over to the Club of American Jersey Cattle Breeders, and the work has been continued by the club since that time. Prior to this time tests were reported to newspapers and frequently tests were claimed for ancestors of cattle that subsequent research showed were either tests for one day multiplied by seven, making it an estimate test, or in some instances that they did not exist at all. It therefore required a large amount of labor to run down by correspondence all this and procure from their owners the actual tests, and these were published with the tabulated pedigree of the cow. This work caused a boom in the Jersey family shown to be prominent, and this has continued all along where they were pushed and developed. Tennessee breeders were fortunate in having laid well their foundation as it was based on such cows as Landseer’s Fancy, Oonan, Duchess of Bloomfield, Beeswax, Kate Gordon and other prominent and beautiful cows and it so happened that the cows named possessed all the requisites, constitution, richness and beauty, and no money was spared in heading the herd with such animals as Imported Tormentor, Signalda, Ida’s Stoke Pogis, Gold Basis, Southern Prince and other noted animals too numerous to mention. From these came what is known as the Tennessee Jerseys, possessing constitution, richness and beauty. As proof of the wonderful development of these cows any person who desires to be informed has only to consult the test books in charge of the American Jersey Cattle Club to find that the richest cattle ever bred, owned and developed were in Tennessee: Bisson’s Belle with the yearly test of 1,028 pounds and fifteen ounces, that held the champion cup, was developed in Tennessee; Landseer’s Fancy tested 936 pounds fourteen and three-quarter ounces in one year, was developed in Tennessee and held the cup. She and her descendants are known for their extreme richness: so marvelously rich that they were compelled to demonstrate their ability to make this test again and again, a number of times by official tests, by disinterested committees and verified by chemical analysis.
I could not in this article undertake to give a list of Jersey cows from Tennessee in the honor roll, but only mention a few of the prominent ones: Ethleel the Second, 30 pounds 15 ounces at two and one-half years old; Landseer’s Fancy, 29pounds one-half ounce; Bisson’s Belle, 28 pounds 10 ounces; Toltec’s Fancy, 27 pounds 5½ ounces—this cow was officially tested by the Alabama experiment station and Major Campbell Brown, and her milk analyzed at Vanderbilt University confirms the test showing butter fat 16.32 per cent, equivalent to one pound of butter to 4.79 of milk; Oonan, 22 pounds 2½ ounces; Duchess of Bloomfield, 20 pounds one-half ounce; Cherokee Rose, 23 pounds 10 ounces. And I might continue even from memory, as this article is dictated from memory (no records being before me), and give a long list. But for the purposes of this article it would be useless and simply a compilation that the people would not read, so I only call attention to the fact that the champion cup, a large silver urn costing five hundred dollars, was held only four times in all; twice in Tennessee against the whole United States. But to prove that the Tennessee Jersey has life in any other hands, scattered far and wide over the United States we have only to look at the work of the last great test at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis to show what their descendants have done.
BISSON’S BELLE.
BISSON’S BELLE.
The American Jersey Cattle Club has published a pamphlet giving the work of the Jersey team of twenty-five selected from all over the United States under a committee appointed by the American Jersey Cattle Club which showed no favoritism, but the cows were judged for entrance into this team by preliminary tests at St. Louis and then the team selected by a committee. It ought to be very gratifying to the old breeders in Tennessee to analyze this pamphlet and find that the cattle bred, owned and developed in Tennessee have, through their descendants, put their mark on thirteen of the twenty-five. It certainly is very pleasant to the writer of this to find that Tormentor, owned by Major Campbell Brown, placed his mark on twelve of the twenty-five; Landseer’s Fancy, owned by the writer, on seven; Oonan, six; Toltec’s Fancy, four. Only one other cow in the United States, of co-temporaneous age, competes with them with six, this cow Erotas.
It is also to be noted that No. 1 of the team of twenty-five champion over own team, the champion cow of all breeds at the World’s Fair, is a descendant from cattle owned, bred and developed by old Tennessee breeders. I do not mean, of course, that she is composed entirely of this blood, but she takes her line directly back from Chemical Test bred in Tennessee, son of Toltec’s Fancy, that in turn was daughter of Landseer’s Fancy. So carrying the blood of Tormentor, Landseer’s Fancy and Oonan.
Then permit an old breeder to make the suggestion that what has been doneonce could be done now even to greater advantage if taken up and the proper amount of energy, zeal and intelligence bestowed upon it. Prices would again revive and Jersey interests in Tennessee would again develop. Why should young breeders of the country neglect the natural advantages we have, backed by experience and the development of the breed already accomplished? I think if there ever was a time that is exceedingly favorable for this industry it is now.
Commencing with Landseer’s Fancy, then giving about thirty pounds of milk per day, which made under test 14 pounds 6 ounces in one week, I fed and developed her through a long series of years, using more and more concentrated food and less bran, until in the end she was capable of digesting two gallons at a feed, equal parts corn and oats, with one-half gallon of bran (pure wheat bran), and when making her maximum amount of butter—29 pounds one-half ounce—was giving only from twenty to twenty-three pounds of milk per day, and subsequently went as low as seventeen or eighteen pounds of milk per day, holding her own with regard to the butter. So it will be seen that from the commencement she lost in quantity of milk, but under such feed gained in butter. Her milk was so remarkably rich as also her daughter, Toltec’s Fancy’s milk, that, for a long time having the test questioned notwithstanding the fact that she had always proven by repeated official tests all claims made for her, finally resorted to glass jars made of heavy glassware wherein her whole milk was placed after each milking and placed under seal as usual in official tests so that when lifted from the water the line of cream and milk would be seen, and it was demonstrated that it was almost entirely cream, being about three-fourths to seven-eighths cream. This cow was exceptional, or I might say, her whole family was exceptional in such remarkable rich production. But she handed down to her descendants the same tendency to richness in other hands long years afterwards. She has two sons with over seventy daughters in the honor roll of the Jerseys, and five daughters all in the fourteen-pound class and upwards, and it would be hard to give a list of her descendants in the fourteen-pound class. I should say something over two hundred. This cow, with others handled by me, was fed according to the capacity of each cow to digest the corn and oats ground together, with grass, hay and running water at will. On this point I cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that Tennessee is better located and supplied with running water than any place I have ever seen. With all the bluegrass and other facilities of Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, they lack running water for the cows to drink and the running water to set the milk in.
I have tried every known experiment in raising the cream on the milk for the best results, but in all I have ever tried I have never found anything equal to the stone spring-house with wire gauze over the windows to keep out all insects, ceiled overhead with plank (not plastered), and set the milk in jars, either stone or glass, when first drawn from the cow warm, in the water about 56 to 59 degrees temperature. The temperature of the milk soon becomes the same temperature as the water and remains stationary until all the cream is raised in the milk. The current of water keeps the air in the spring-house fresh and clean and every facility is given for the production of butter.
In building the various spring-houses that I used on the different farms at different times, I always used what is known as the test-room, about six feet wide across the entire spring-house, a wall of brick or stone cemented inside and out, with only one door and window in the same, both of which could be placed under seal by any committee called to test the cattle at any time, or used by myself and manager in making private tests, so that the milk of the cow under test could be kept absolutely untampered with by any person. And the tests made by me were made in this way and verified by various committees and also by chemical analysis. So that when I went out of breeding Jerseys I know that I had more official tests than anyJersey breeder, and probably at one time as much as all combined.
I believe in the theory that especial families of Jerseys are capable of being fed so as to grow richer after long continued feed. Some will not. There is a limit that will be found in nearly all of them.
In testing cattle it was always my purpose to ascertain the maximum of food capable of being digested by any cow under test, and fall slightly below this quantity of feed so as to keep her appetite always whetted.
Another point was that she be fed regularly and preferably, not over twice a day with concentrated foods, and thus giving the stomach all the time to do its work. I have seen many a test disturbed by feeding only a small amount of grain at the dinner time out of order. It disturbs the entire digesting of the animals and will probably throw them off a day or two. When undisturbed, the same cow will come up at night and take her regular feed and not be disturbed in her test at all. It may be thought that this is going into detail too much, but small details sometimes have wonderful influence in handling any animal. A horse may be just on edge for a race and some small circumstance occur that disturbs it. So with the wonderful mechanism of the cow making her four pounds of butter per day, she must be handled very carefully.
But it may be said, what profit is there in all this? My reply is that if Landseer’s Fancy had not been tested as she was and thoroughly developed her descendants might have passed unnoticed and we would have been none the wiser as to the capabilities of this family. I have taken her as an instance because more familiar with her history than others, and because she was the hub around which the herd revolved. I paid $175 for her, and, on calculation of her descendants owned by me and sold to others, she realized nearly $30,000 without any calculation as to her milk and butter. She entered into and formed the web and woof of what was known as The Columbia Jersey Cattle Company’s herd. She was sold subsequently when that corporation was wound up to Messrs. Webster and Morrow and entered the great herd at Nashville.
This Columbia Jersey Cattle Company organized with a capital stock of $20,000, paid a dividend of 14 per cent or over per annum, and the stock was retired at par with all debts paid; one of the most successful of all Jersey cattle enterprises I was ever in. I think the last year, with about thirty working cows and the dairy receipts of thirty-six hundred dollars and over and the sales of calves and cattle from the herd, with the herd products and heifers added, was something over ten thousand dollars.
It was then located at Indian Camp Springs, about three miles from Columbia and an ideal place for a spring-house, the spring being about fifty nine feet above the spring-house and coming to the spring-house through a four inch pipe, but the water had to be cut off so that it would run slowly into the spring-house, and when we wanted to work the butter in the churn it would be turned on into the hose and the butter thoroughly washed.
Young breeders cannot adopt a better formula for feed than the one I have suggested, which is cheap also in the long run, for it is a farm product and it is not necessary to buy on the market, but it can be produced on the farm. Besides this, no cow will stand commercial feed as she will this corn and oats in equal parts. It is nearer suited to nature and she can stand this feed longer without injury than any commercial food. When I say corn and oats in equal parts I mean bushel for bushel mixed and ground together. If any one will think a minute there is nothing deleterious in this food. You can get it absolutely pure, whereas if you go to market to buy bran to feed the cattle on you do not know what you are getting, sometimes the sweeping of the mill floor and any old waste the miller is pleased to throw off. The Jersey breeder ought essentially to be a farmer and raise on his own farm what his herd consumes and thus market the products of the farm.