LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 481 



develop our larger, early maturing breeds. Rich pastures, where full food 

 supply can be obtained without much effort, develop large animals. On the 

 other hand, sparse pastures on uneven, hilly or mountainous land tend to 

 decrease size, and so we find most of our small breeds have had their origin 

 on lands of uneven or barren character. 



Climate, too, plays no unimportant part in producing breed characteris- 

 tics. Those breeds most highly prized for their economic values are natives 

 of the temperate zones. These are all natural conditions and affect animals 

 prior to as well as after their domestication. And yet while each and all of 

 these factors have had great influence in molding into form our numerous 

 breeds, and have more or less to do with the improvement or deterioration 

 of their peculiar characteristics, it must be admitted that to skillful breed- 

 ing and feeding we are indebted most largely for those breeds whose value 

 for practical uses are most positively decided. 



It then follows that the relation of breeds to milk or beef production, or 

 to any line of development, is not a fixed, but under certain limitations a 

 variable one, dependent upon the continuance of the causes that have con- 

 tributed, by intensifying its distinguishing characteristics, to its individu- 

 ality. 



HOLSTEINVFRIESIAN CATTLE. 



With these brief references to breeds, and the agencies by which they have 

 been developed, let me allude to the history of the breed of cattle in which 

 you are most directly interested, and see how far these references apply. 

 The home of the Holstein-Friesian breed, so far as we can trace its origin, 

 was on the flats of North Holland and Friesland, noted for their fertility 

 from a very early period. Every condition of soil and climate were calcu- 

 lated to develop a large, hardy breed of cattle. And when we remember 

 that the sturdy Hollanders were the pioneers in dairy husbandry, and that 

 their dairy products in amount and quality have never been equaled by any 

 other people on the same area, we have the reason of their zeal and effort to 

 perfect a breed of cattle suited to their special industry. A soil of great 

 natural fertility, especially adapted to the production of the most valuable 

 grasses and forage crops, has been made more fertile, sure and productive by 

 the added benefits of irrigation and heavy manuring. It is to their credit 

 that as early, if not before any other people, the Hollanders identified them- 

 selves with the cultivation of tame grasses and the clovers, which have proved 

 potent agents in the developing of this breed of cattle that has been famous 

 for dairy qualities for centuries. In short, the Holstein-Friesian breed of 

 cattle is the product of most favorable natural conditions. Soil and climate 

 have contributed to the furthest limit in their development, and the Dutch 

 farmers, with more far-reaching knowledge perhaps than those of any other 

 nationality, have weighed the advantages of dairying in maintaining fertility 

 and returning adequate rewards for capital and labor invested. To them 

 the typical dairy cow has been the image of profit. To develop in her off- 

 spring those qualities that should add to her value for this particular purpose 

 has been their study not for one, but many centuries. Can we doubt the 

 strength of heredity thus acquired and intensified through successive gener- 

 ations; under natural conditions so favorable, coupled with the studious 

 efforts of the breeders by careful selections to attain their ideal of perfection? 



61 



