STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 513 



We sold from July I, 1000, to July 1, ItK)!, 56,948 gallons of milk from 

 fifty-two liciicl of cows. No accomit was kept of the milk used in our 

 family, nor for the tAVO tenants and their families. This makes an aver- 

 age of a little more than three gallons per cow per day for the entire year. 



This breed of cattle is rapidly occupying the richer and more important 

 dairy sections of our country; hence there is a great demand for informa- 

 tion in regard to them. These cattle Avere introduced from the province 

 of North Holland and Friesland, a section of the kingdom of Netherlands 

 liordering on the North Sea, commonly called Holland. The dairymen of 

 these provinces are descendants of the ancient Friesians, and their cat- 

 tle are lineal descendants of the cattle bred by them 2,000 years ago. 

 From the earliest accounts of dairy husbandry these cattle have been 

 used and developed for dairy purposes. North Holland has been mainly 

 devoted to cheese production, and Friesland to butter production. As 

 an illustration of the extent of the latter production the following sta- 

 tistics are quoted: The area of Friesland is 1,253 squares miles, fifty-three 

 less than the State of Rhode Island. In 1874 England imported from 

 Friesland 40,763 cwt. of cheese and 266,041 cwt. of butter. Reduced to 

 pounds, these importations were 4,565,456 pounds of cheese and 29,796,592 

 pounds of butter. In 1879 the number of cows in Friesland was 144,802. 

 Assuming an equal number in 1874, this importation of butter from Fries- 

 land was an average of 20.5% pounds for all the cows, old and young, 

 owned in that province. P^ven if there Avere no home consumption, and 

 no sales to other countries, these exports alone sufficiently demonstrate 

 the great capacity of this breed. 



THESE CATTLE IN OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE. 



If alloAved to spread Avithout artificial restrictions, the value of a 

 breed may be judged somewhat by the territory over which it spreads in 

 competition with other breeds. Especially is this true of dairy breeds 

 found, as such breeds are, only in civilized countries and on valuable 

 land. This breed is found in more countries, occupying more territory, 

 and probably producing more milk, cheese and butter than all other 

 dairy breeds combined. These facts are brought forcibly to our attention 

 by the reports of American Consuls in the commercial centers of Europe 

 in answer to inquiries made by our Department of State in 1883. Going 

 south from the two Netherland provinces— North Holland and Friesland— 

 where this breed originated, and from whence it is mainly brought, it has 

 spread over the pi-ovinces of Utrecht and South Holland, almost exclu- 

 sively occupying them. Farther south, in the kingdom of Belgium, the 

 most densely populated State in Europe, three of its provinces are largely 

 deA^oted to dairying— Ant wei-p and East and West Flanders. The peculiar 

 location of Belgium makes it equally easy for the dairyman to import 

 from England, North Holland and the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. 



33— Agriculture. 



