FARMEllS' INSTITUTES. 309 



tion of facts proving the correctness of the theories, and by the earnestness 

 manifested by the speaker, evidencing that he had the subject at heart. 



A letter from lion. James Birncy, U. S. Minister at the Hague, was read 

 by Judge Marston, on 



cows IN HOLLAXD. 



Some writer has said of Holland, that it is "the paradise of cows." If to 

 have plenty to eat, water alwas convenient for drink, beautiful pastures in 

 summer, warm housing in winter, kindness and good service on the part of the 

 masters, makes the paradise that cows covet, then tliey certainly have it in 

 Holland. Their range is upon fields perpetually green with luxuriant grass. 

 The saline atmosphere that is blown over them from the sea whets their appe- 

 tite and promotes their vigor. They are distressed neither by the sun of mid- 

 summer, nor by the frosts of winter. When the chilling blast of the short 

 days assail them they are snugly stowed away under the same roof that shel- 

 ters their keepers. The few notes I propose to jot down about them, will first 

 describe their species, and then mode of treatment. 



A small number of Holland cows have been imported into the United States, 

 and at the fairs where they have been exhibited have been called Holstein. 

 This is a mistake, and has occurred through inadvertence that does them in- 

 justice. They are, as a breed, much superior to the Holstein, a kind reared in 

 a portion of northern Germany. "They would be correctly called Frisian, 

 for the reason that they originally came from Friesland, one of the states of 

 Holland." At a very early period a colony of Dutch, taking their cattle with 

 them, migrated to England and settled upon the river Tees, which borders 

 upon the county of Durham. The Durham cattle had gained no distinction 

 until after this event, and it is supposed that a cross with the native cattle of 

 that vicinity and the Holland, produced the Durham. Although the Durham 

 branch of the bovine family has gained great acceptance, yet it has been bred 

 latterly more with reference to symmetry of form and for beef qualities. The 

 result of this is that while it is superior for form and beef, many of the 

 cows are failures for dairy uses. On the contrary .the Holland cattle are re- 

 garded as the best known for yield of milk and cheese making. A dairyman 

 who carries on a lage business near Utica, New York, imported some of the 

 Holland cows about five years since. He soon found them preferable to every 

 other variety he had tried. Two years ago he returned and made other pur- 

 chases. He has just arrived here again, and is now busy in getting ready an- 

 other importation. He is a very intelligent man, and gives as the result of his 

 experience that the milk the Holland cows yield is greater in quantity, richer 

 in quality and better adapted for butter and cheese making than that of any 

 other species he has knowledge of. He told me that one of the young cows 

 he took from here two years ago, frequently yielded as much as seventy-eight 

 pounds of milk per day. Among those bought within the last week he has 

 one that yields per day ninety-six pounds (two pounds being equal to one 

 quart), so that she gives 48 quarts per day. It should be noted that some of 

 the dairies in New York receive and pay for milk by the pound and not by the 

 quart. He further said that his importation had turned out profitable ; that 

 such as he retained proved more than satisfactory for milk and butter ; that 

 when they were farrow and ceased giving milk they took on tlesh rapidly and 

 were soon ready for market; and that for those sold to other dairymen remu- 

 nerative prices had been obtained. Another dairyman residing near Syracuse 



