DAIRY BREEDS OF CATTLE 



Jaked Van Wagenen, Jr. 

 Farmers' Institute Conductor 



There are between fifteen and twenty diflFerent breeds of cattle 

 rccogni;^ed in America, althouidi some of these have very few rep- 

 resentatives and are slightly known. There are four — the IIol- 

 stein-Friesian, Ayrshire, Jersey and the Guernsey that are univer- 

 sally recognized as special purpose dairy breeds. Then in addi- 

 tion to these, four other minor breeds - — the Dutch Belted, the 

 French-Canadian, the Brown Swiss and the Kerrv are commonlv 

 classed as dairy cattle. The American farmers as a whole have 

 done little in the originating of American breeds. There arc two 

 or three types of horses and three or four breeds of swine which 

 are distinctively American, but every breed of cattle entered in 

 the Fair Association premium lists are of European origin save 

 only the little French-Canadian cow from Quebec. Our one 

 American breed, the Holderness, was allowed to pass almost 

 before it was formed — nor is it to be regretted for there is no 

 possible excuse for a further multiplication of breeds. The 

 following is a very brief account of the history and character- 

 istics of our special purpose breeds of dairy cattle. 



THE IIOLSTEIISr-FRIESIAN 



The ITolstein-Friesian is the black and white cow of TTolland 

 and the lower lihine. Doubtless animals of this breed were im- 

 ported to the Hudson Valley by the early Dutch settlers nearly 

 three centuries ago. The Holland Land Comjiany brought some 

 over in ITOT) and from time to time since, there have been importa- 

 tions. These early importations were from different });irts of tlie 

 country and so confusion of names resulted. In IST- the first vol- 

 ume of the ITolstein Herd P)Ook was published and in 1880 another 

 organization brought out the Dutch-Fricsian Herd Book — thus 

 putting two rival associations in the f;eld. Finally in 1885 these 



[1770] 



