338 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



the production of milk, but though in small quantity their milk is ex- 

 tremely rich, and in Hungary are occasionally found excellent milch 

 cows, This deficiency may be explained by the fact that in their origi- 

 nal home the animals are rarely or never milked. On the other hand, 

 this race gives the best of animals for labor and is valuable for slaugh- 

 ter, not only for the superior quality of its flesh, but the abundance of 

 suet in comparison with other races." The defects of this animal, more 

 or less persistent in all modifications, besides the scarcity of milk, are: 

 head too heavy, with a neck excessively long, depressed ribs, the back 

 narrow, and the limbs loug and ill furnished with muscle. This is the 

 original type of most of the Italian races, and, more or less altered by 

 long domestication and indiscriminate mixtures, it is the prevailing 

 element of the stogk of this region. 



Another and less numerous group is found only here and in certain 

 parts of the provinces of Parma and Piaeenza, smaller than the above, 

 with a uniform coat of red or reddish-brown, amber-colored horn and 

 hoof, rose-tinted lip and nostril, and white eyelids. Showing no affinity 

 with any of the Alpine or Podolian types, it is generally conjectured to 

 be a relic of the aboriginal race, the bos italicus described by Latin 

 authors and figured on ancient monuments. The animal at present is 

 said to be inferior for fattening, fairly good for labor, with a tolerable 

 yield of milk. Specimens were presented at the Universal Exhibition 

 of Vienna in 1873, but were reported to possess no special merit of 

 any kind, while open to objection for disadvantages and diversities of 

 form and under size. 



These animals seem to answer the present requirements of the country ; 

 with the broken and difficult nature of a large portion of its surface, 

 the want of irrigation and the imperfect cultivation of the remainder, 

 the region seems suited for animals of general usefulness, indifferent 

 to hardships and privation. 



IMPROVING UDINE CATTLE. 



The spirit of improvement, however, is active and growing. The 

 agricultural community are earnest in seeking the best means of im- 

 provement, and the essays so far made have been attended with a suc- 

 cess which attracts general attention and interest. Independently of 

 private experiments, the provincial administration has expended $10,000 

 during the last few years in the acquisition of choice reproducers, bulls 

 and cows, afterward transferred to .private breeders. The cross con- 

 sidered most successful so far is with the Swiss race of Freiburg. 



The province just described is one of the largest in the kingdom, 

 embracing all varieties of surface and a large portion of the Alps, 

 Which form its eastern extremity. It is mostly a pastoral region, but in 

 the proportion of cattle to its surface ranks only sixth in the Venetian 

 group, possessing 21.2 to the square kilometer, while the average is 25, 

 with the same inferiority in the character of its races, and a greater 

 variety of bastard and nondescript mixtures. 



CATTLE IN TREVISO. 



The adjoining inland province of Treviso falls below it both in num- 

 ber and quality of stock, offering only a wider field for the propagation 

 of the same nameless medley of subraces, generally variations of the 

 Podolian, which always seems to displace other animals in the hot and 

 dry plains by a sort of natural survivance. This region, lying almost 



