BREEDS 163 



breed is suitable for our own husbandry. It is much to be 

 regretted that our Government did not establish this fact before 

 encouraging, by allowing an exceptional privilege to the breeders 

 of these cattle, the reproduction of the race. There can be no 

 doubt that a craze (one can use no other term) has set in for 

 the British Friesland which may possibly be detrimental to the 

 future production of beef in our home country. 



The whole question turns upon whether or no the cows can 

 breed beef steers. They are exceptional milkers as regards 

 quantity. They are far behind Guernseys as regards quality 

 of milk, and the Guernsey could easily be selected to compete 

 with the Friesland in regard to quantity if size were taken into 

 consideration; thus there is no reason, from the milk-yielding 

 point of view, why we should find the former breed selling for 

 hundreds while people tumble over one another to bid thousands 

 for good Friesians. The Dutch cow, if slaughtered young, 

 yields a carcase of good cow-beef, but no better than is to be 

 obtained from any good non-pedigree deep-milking Shorthorn. 

 Of these latter it may be objected that they vary very much, 

 but in the districts of South Holland a locality from which 

 the best dual-purpose cattle of Holland are to be obtained 

 I have never seen cows anything like as good as the best Short- 

 horns sent out regularly every month by the dairymen who 

 supply the North Country cities of our own land with warm 

 milk. The latter have a just grievance against the breeders 

 of the worst cattle they have to house and fatten for the 

 butcher; they have a right to ask that the English breeder 

 should emulate the wonderful uniformity of the Dutch breeders' 

 stock ; but they have , always among their herds some deep- 

 milking cows that for beef-production are quite unequalled by 

 any dual-purpose cattle in the world. The Friesian drops a 

 very wonderful calf, considered from the point of view of feeding 

 for veal. Though I have no means of judging other than by 

 observation, nevertheless, I feel convinced that no breed pro- 

 duces a calf that is born so fat as the Friesian ; the importance 

 of this factor can only be realized by those who have been 

 obliged, to their misfortune, to get veal from calves which, 

 at birth, were mere skin and bone. But the whole problem 



