HOLSTEIN, OR DUTCH CATTLE. 



Comparatively little attention has been paid, either in Great 

 Britain or in the United States, to the breeds of cattle which pre- 

 vail in Continental Europe, and it is very possible that by this 

 omission merit may have been overlooked. Dutch cattle were 

 imported into New York early in the seventeenth century, and 

 traces of that stock may yet be seen in the pastures of that State. 

 It is very probable that the dairy qualities of the cows had some- 

 what to do with the early prevalence of dairy husbandry there. 



It is claimed that the Holstein, or Improved Dutch Cattle of 

 to-day have been as much improved from those of former years as 

 have the Shorthorns, Devons, Ayrshires, Herefords, or Jerseys of 

 Great Britain; and by the same means, viz., care, skill and good 

 judgment in the selection and coupling of the best specimens to 

 breed from, with a rigorous "weeding out" of inferior ones. 



Animals of this improved race were imported by W. AV. Che- 

 nery, Esq., of Belmont, Mass., some years since, which have 

 increased in numbers, and to a limited extent have become dis- 

 seminated, yet enough to furnish indications of what may be 

 expected from farther increase. That they possess remarkable 

 dairy qualities is plain enough, and scarcely any more doubt can 

 be entertained that these run in the direction of cheese rather than 

 of butter yielding ; — which may explain what the writer has fre- 

 quently heard of them : that their calves take on flesh with greater 

 rapidity than those of cows yielding milk richer perhaps in butter 

 but containing less of caseine, — the principal flesh-making or 

 nitrogenous constituent of milk. 



It is plain enough that animals of their size, whatever the breed, 

 require a goodly amount of food if the owner would realize profit 

 from them. It is not half so bad policy to run cotton or woollen 

 machinery, or mill saws or grist mills at half speed or capacity, as 

 it is to run cattle organisms (considered in the aspect of machines 

 for the conversion of vegetable into animal products) at such 

 rate. And if what we have heard, from those supposed to be 



