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
alone to 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, 29 pounds 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.
[Illustration: 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
done once 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 any Jersey 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.