SWITZERLAND. 287 



SWITZEKLAOT). 



SWISS CATTLE. 



REPORT BY CONSUL MASON, OF BASLE. 

 THE TWO PRINCIPAL RACES AND THEIR SUBSIDIARY BREEDS. 



Switzerland, whose seventeen different kinds of cheese are nearly all 

 exported, in greater or less quantities, to most civilized countries, pos- 

 sesses two distinct and noble breeds of cattle, each of which maybe fairly 

 said to be, in respect to certain essential qualities, unsurpassed, if indeed 

 they are equaled, by any other bovine races in Europe. They are, re- 

 spectively : 



(1) The Spotted race (Fleckvieh), which has its origin hi the valleys of 

 the Simine, the Saane, and the Kander in Canton Berne, and is known 

 by the nameof "Berner spotted," or i( Simmenthalor Saanenthal cattle." 

 The principal off-shoot or subsidiary breed of this race is the " Freiburger 

 Schwarzvieh," from the adjacent canton of Friburgh, which is marked 

 similarly to the Berners cattle, except that its spots are black instead 

 of yellow or red. 



(2) The Brown ScUwyzer race, the origin of which is traced to Canton 

 Schwyz, from which its name is also derived. This race is bred in its 

 greatest purity in the central cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Zug, and is 

 distributed throughout the whole of Appenzell, Eastern and Central 

 Switzerland, and as far west as the Canton of Argau. A few are also 

 kept in the high valleys of the Jura and among the adjacent foot-hills, 

 so that this breed must be included in any adequate account of the cat- 

 tle of this consular district. 



As to the approximate date at which these two principal races of cat- 

 tle were first introduced into Switzerland, opinions differ. By many 

 their presence here is believed to be coexistent with that of the present 

 race of people, and there have been found among the remains of the 

 prehistoric lake-dwellers skulls of oxen bearing horns and other marks 

 peculiar to the brown Sch wyzer cattle of to-day. It is generally believed 

 that the Spotted breed of cattle, on the other hand, was derived orig- 

 inally from the Netherlands, and a resemblance is found between the 

 Bernese animals and certain breed of Dutch cattle. But, whatever their 

 origin, the essential fact is that the Spotted and Brown cattle races of 

 Switzerland have been refined and improved by many centuries of careful 

 treatment and intelligent breeding, and have become during the mod- 

 ern period of international expositions two of the most valued and im- 

 portant breeds in Europe. 



SWISS IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF CATTLE. 



By reason of the limited area of this thickly peopled country, and the 

 high values of its meadow and pasture lands, the cattle product of Switz- 

 erland is inadequate to its needs, and the animals which are annually 

 imported for meat exceed in number, though not in value, the Swiss 

 cattle which are exported in constantly increasing quantities for dairy 

 and breeding purposes. There were in Switzerland, at the last census, 

 1,030,000 horned cattle, of which about one-half were milch cows. 



