154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Much the larger proportion of the cattle are black and white in 

 color, yet quite a per cent of them are red and white, dun and white, 

 etc. Some of the herd books record all these cattle. In America 

 onl}- the blacks and whites are recorded. In size the cattle var^- 

 greatk. Cows range from 1,000 to 1,870 pounds each, and bulls 

 from 1,800 to 3,000 pounds each. Under such conditions are the 

 Holstein-Friesians developed in their native country. [For the 

 foregoing facts I am indebted to Dudley Miller's work on Holstein- 

 Friesian cattle.] 



Two thousand 3'ears of breeding upon most fertile and 

 productive soil, with but little influx from other breeds, under 

 the almost family treatment of careful Hollanders have com- 

 bined to produce the greatest milk producing, and I ma}- also add, 

 milk, butter and beef combined animal in the world. But the lymphatic 

 Dutchman was not the man to discover the value or the superiority 

 of the breed. It was left to the American, the embodiment of 

 enterprise and thrift, to not only discover the facts but also to 

 apply them in a practical manner. Mr. Chenery of Belmont, Mass., 

 made the first importations. These were soon followed b}' Hon. 

 Gerrit S. Miller, and later by Smiths & Powell and others. It is 

 due to the latter firm, now known as Smiths, Powell & Lamb, per- 

 haps more than to an}' other, that the wonderful capacity of the 

 herd as milk and butter producers has been developed and 

 ad*'ertized the world over. Other breeders and speculators have 

 spent much time and money in the work, but I believe that no firm 

 has worked with so much system on so large a scale as has this one. 

 The Aaggie, Netherland and Clothilde families have all been 

 established by the above, and the secret of the wide popularity of 

 these families is due to the fact that records have been kept of 

 both their milk and butter production, and the world has been 

 constantlv informed as to what was beiny: done. Others could have 

 d< ne the same thing with other animals had they started at 

 the same time and exhibited the same skill and perseverance. Men 

 of good judgment in selection like Alonzo Bradley of Lee, Mass., 

 and Mr. Baldwin of Ohio have brought over from the old country 

 many valuable animals, perhaps as individual performers equal to 

 any ever imported. But the family and record ideas have not been 

 followed up. Yearly records for milk and weekly records for butter 

 have done the business. And the world to-day knows by actual 

 figures what many of the best animals in the breed are capable of 



