SKETCH OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 



49 



English Thoroughbred ; and the Rambouillet variety of the 

 Merino sheep, which had in turn been borrowed from Spain. 

 Though the Dutch laid the foundations of our largest city and 

 gave us some of the best features of our system of popular 

 education, their most valuable contributions to our agriculture 

 are buckwheat, white clover, and the Holstein cow. Spain gave 

 us our monetary unit, the dollar, but contributed nothing special 

 to the improvement of our agriculture except the Merino sheep 

 and some of the progenitors of the American mule. Germany 

 and the Scandinavian countries have given us a great many 

 sturdy farmers, and every country is indebted to Germany for 

 many scientific discoveries which have indirectly benefited agri- 

 culture as well as other industries ; but, aside from the Olden- 

 burg coach horse and a few special varieties of grain and fruit, 

 she has made no significant contributions toward the direct 

 improvement of our agriculture. We have borrowed from many 

 nations in fact, but all of them together have scarcely contrib- 

 uted as much as Great Britain to our agricultural development. 

 From that country we have imported every one of our leading 

 breeds of cattle except the Holstein and the Brown Swiss, 1 all 

 our leading breeds of sheep except the Merino in its different 

 varieties, several of our leading breeds of swine, and a few 

 breeds of poultry. To her we owe the Shire, the Clydesdale, 

 and the Suffolk among draft horses, and the Thoroughbred, 

 which is the foundation of all our saddle and driving horses. 

 In addition we have brought from Great Britain most of the 

 common garden and field crops except those which were indig- 

 enous, such as corn, potatoes, and tobacco, and also cotton, 

 which obviously could not have come from so cold a country as 

 England, the common cultivated varieties being imported from 

 the eastern hemisphere, though certain species are native to 



1 Since the islands of Jersey and Guernsey are under the British flag, the 

 Jeisey and Geurnsey cattle are included under British breeds. 



