THE DAIRY BREEDS 



LECTURE NO. 22 



HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN CATTLE THEIR ORIGIN AND 



HISTORY. 



I. But little is known with certainty regarding 

 the ultimate origin of this breed, but 



(1) Judging from the few flashlight statements coming 

 from a remote past they would seem to have been bred pure 

 in much of the country eastward from the North sea for fully 

 2000 years. 



(2) History makes it clear that since the Christian era, 

 if not, indeed, before that time, cattle keeping has been the 

 chief occcupation of the rural population. 



(3) There is some evidence to show that as early as the 

 ninth century, Holland was famed for its dairy products. 



(4) The historian, Motley, referring to this country, 

 speaks of oxen 2000 pounds in weight, and of the immense 

 production and exportation of butter and cheese, even in the 

 seventeenth century. 



II. Holland has several breeds or types of cat- 

 tle, of which the Friesian, or Friesland, are the most 

 numerous. 



(1) The Friesian and North Holland cattle, resembling 

 each other in all essentials and the progenitors of nearly all 

 the Holstein-Friesian cattle in the United States, are by many 

 supposed to have come originally from the duchy of Holstein. 



(2) The sub-breeds. Oldenbtirgers, West Friesian. East 

 Friesian. Gronnigen and Beemster are all supposed to have 

 been derived from one parent stem. 



(3) The differences are owing in part to differences in 

 management, but more probably to differences in soil pro- 

 duction. 



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