THE DAIET BREEDS OF CATTLE 281 



sity for it was suggested to him by the fact that many 

 cattle of doubtful merit and unknown breeding were being 

 entered in the Holstein herd-book. There was need of 

 recognized intrinsic standards of merit to serve as guides 

 in breeding and selection. Accordingly, he induced the 

 Dutch-Friesian Association to maintain an Advanced Regis- 

 ter, in which cattle should be entered only in case of special 

 merit, determined for bulls by means of an official scale 

 of points, and in the case of cows by an additional scale of 

 productiveness. While there was much early opposition 

 to the Advanced Register, it has abundantly demonstrated 

 its value. Since about 1894, it has been recognized as 

 the chief means for the advancement of the interests of 

 the Association and of its members, and its essential prin- 

 ciples have been adopted by other breeders' organizations 

 both in America and Europe. It is to be regretted that 

 descriptions and measurements in the practical operation 

 of the system have been abandoned. It is also unfor- 

 tunate that the Association, while admitting cows to the 

 advanced registry only on the basis of the yield of butter- 

 fat, tacitly sanctions the use of too low a factor for the 

 conversion of butter-fat into butter records. The factor 

 80 per cent, generally used, cannot be too severely con- 

 demned, since repeated demonstrations show that good 

 marketable butter requires the presence in the milk of at 

 least 85.7 per cent of its weight of butter-fat. 



315. Description. In color, the Holstein-Friesian is 

 invariably black and white. It is specially characterized 

 by great constitutional vigor, flexibility, thrift and enor- 

 mous production of milk of comparatively low percentage 

 of butter-fat. At the present time, 1915, as a result of 

 mutation, many cows are producing milk through whole 

 lactation periods in quality exceeding 3.75 per cent fat and 



