CATTLE. 71 



simple quality of the food. Swiss cattle stalls are, almost universally, long, very low, rec 

 tangular attachments to the barns. They are always built of stone, with walls one to two 

 feet thick. The stalls are usually ceiled overhead, and are often plastered throughout. The 

 floors are likely to be of stone or cement, and the single oak door at the end of the rectangle 

 is as tight-fitting and airless as the doors of the people s houses. There are no windows, 

 unless the one or two little barred holes through the stone walls are to be called windows. 

 There is no ventilation, and the place is very nearly dark. The hay is gotten into the little 

 low mangers through small openings in the wall, between the heads of the cows and the 

 hay barn. The atmosphere in these stalls is hot and horridly impure. 



The stalls are clean and nice beyond comparison. They are swept and littered two and 

 three times a day. It is their heat only and want of ventilation that are nearly unendurable. 

 The litter or bedding is usually slough-grass, poor hay and straw, and sometimes sawdust. 

 Cows that are kept by peasants in the neighborhood of the mountains are taken out and pastured 

 on the high Alps during the short summer. This, however, is a comfort denied all Swiss 

 cattle of the plains, and cattle near towns. In the stalls the cows stand in rows, with 

 scarcely a foot of room between them; indeed they have barely room to lie down at all. 



As I have already said, grass and hay usually form the only food the cows receive. 

 In the summer the cow is fed all the fresh cut grass she will eat. In the winter, she is 

 allowed, usually, about seven Swiss clafters of hay (a clafter measuring 216 cubic feet). This 

 would average near to 30 pounds, or, at selling prices, about 19 cents worth of hay to the 

 cow, daily. In exceptional cases only are two or three cents worth of turnips, potatoes, or 

 shorts, added to this daily ration. There are no pasture fields, aside from the high Alps, so 

 the cow receives her grass ready cut, and in her manger out of reach of flies.&quot; 



These cattle are well adapted to hilly and mountainous districts, and wherever they have 

 been distributed in this country, have given the best of satisfaction to their owners. Being 

 extremely hardy, they are little affected by change of climate, and are admirably adapted 

 to mountainous localities or such as may sufficiently approach their native habitat to require 

 for their most profitable occupancy such a breed as this, and where one less hardy would not 

 prove profitable. They are regarded by some as destined to be the favorite dairy cow of 

 the future. 



Description. There are different races of cattle in Switzerland peculiar to certain 

 localities. These races seem to be modifications to a greater or less degree of the principal 

 breed, the &quot;brown Switzer,&quot; which we describe, and which is superior to all others in 

 that country for milk production. During the past few years there has been a marked 

 improvement in the Swiss cows. Having formerly been bred solely for milk, no attention 

 whatever was paid to beauty of form or color in breeding. The old-style cow of this breed 

 therefore had a large, coarse head, with a receding forehead, high coarse shoulders, coarse 

 skin, and a large frame with an undue preponderance of bone. 



At present, however, the Swiss cow is an animal of very different type, and while it may 

 differ somewhat in fineness from the small-boned Jersey and some other breeds, yet the 

 change from the former type is a marked one, and has also been accompanied with improve 

 ment in milk production; so that the Swiss cow of to-day, as a milker, may be classed among 

 the best performing races known to the dairymen. 



The Swiss cattle are large and well formed, the usual weight of the cows being about 

 1,200 to 1,300 pounds, exceptional weight being 1,500 pounds. Mature bulls range from 

 2,000 to 2,700 pounds. Those kept in the higher Alps, where the herbage is scanty, generally 

 average about 900 pounds. In color they vary from a light to a dark chestnut brown ; the 

 lighter being denominated by some writers as a &quot;mouse color.&quot; The light shade is particu 

 larly observable in a narrow line along the back, in the* inside of the ears, and in tufts of 

 hair between the horns. The horns are rather short, of smooth texture, and tipped with 



