340 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



of the Tyrolese. Both are of middling stature, with the coat of uniform 

 color and short-curved horns ; both are very much inferior to the Swiss 

 as milk producers, with excellent qualities for labor and fattening ; and 

 the meat of both, with the same forage, has the same texture and flavor. 

 Add to this the effect of contact and intermixture for so many cen- 

 turies, and their present affinity hardly admits a doubt. The special 

 traits of the Bellunese are a shorter head, with the ear much smaller, 

 and the eye more prominent and vivacious, the chest broader, and the 

 ribs more open and rounded. He is more short-coupled, with limbs 

 shorter and thicker at the knees ; his coat is more decidedly gray, while 

 that of the Tyrolese is tawney and whitish, with a thicker and more 

 porous skin, and the horns less robust and of a lighter tint of black. 

 The Tyrolese cow gives rather more milk, but both races are docile and 

 enduring for labor, while the Bellunese has a special tendency to fatten, 

 and a remarkable precocity of development, attributed to the abundance 

 of terrous oxides furnished by the rocks (dolomic and calcareous car- 

 bonates) of these mountains. At two years the bull is apt for pro 

 creation; many assert that he is so at eighteen months; at the same age 

 (two years) the ox is capable of hard labor, and at three years commands 

 the highest price for slaughter ; it is rarely the case that heifers are not 

 impregnated before the end of the second year. It is quite possible that 

 this precocity may not persist in the race when removed from its native 

 locality, and it is liable to entail a corresponding tendence to early de- 

 cline. 



Some breeders assert this animal to be superior to the Tyrolese, and 

 propose to adopt it as the type best suited to the region, improving it 

 by selection, without further mixture of foreign blood, unless perhaps 

 with the view to obtain a better yield of milk in certain districts. A 

 bull of this race has been installed as official reproducer by the agri- 

 cultural board of Conegliano and the surrounding region in the neigh- 

 boring province of Treviso, and others are to be found in Padua and 

 Vicenza. In the meanwhile the commercial importance of the stock is 

 attested by the growing demand both for labor and slaughter in various 

 parts of Italy, and the sale and exportation of nearly all the annual pro- 

 duction of beeves and bullocks, together with a sixth of the cows. 



The whole subject of breeding and treatment is becoming the domi- 

 nant interest of the community. The provincial administration maintains 

 four veterinary stations at different points, where competent specialists 

 not only superintend the management of animals and report on their 

 condition, but hold a school for instructing the population iu the best 

 modes of care and management. Private proprietors are paying more 

 attention to the improvement of their stock, and reproducing stations, 

 maintained by communal authorities, are becoming frequent. The Gov- 

 ernment in Italy does not implant such stations directly, but encourages 

 their creation by prizes and subsidies to the ingrative of individuals or 

 associations. The same zeal is shown in the construction of stables on 

 a better system to replace the pestilential hovels where the animals and 

 the peasant family formerly sought shelter and warmth together, at the 

 expense of health in the long winters, as well as of sheds necessary for 

 protection in the bleak mountain pastures. 



An indication of the progress made is found in the expressions used 

 in an in quest formerly made on the subject under the Austrian Govern- 

 ment, speaking of the cattle of Belluno; " These animals in four or five 

 years' time reach only a middling size, and are not susceptible of further 

 growth without choice and costly food. The traders of the department 

 of the Tagliamento (Udine) buy both oxen and cows, which, transported 



