164 BREEDS 



before us is to maintain our reputation as prime beef-producers 

 and, while .doing so, to make a reputation in the future for 

 farming intensively the whole of our land, not merely the more 

 favoured areas, thus winning abundant food for the nation, 

 besides profit for the individual. For this purpose cattle that 

 are good milkers, even though they drop calves that make good 

 veal, cannot be said to be suitable if they do not breed steers 

 suitable for beef making. 



I am in considerable doubt as to whether the Friesian has 

 this latter quality. For many years I have made observations 

 on this point. In the Netherlands I have never seen one good 

 steer of the desired kind. It is true that one does not see many, 

 but all I have seen have been inferior. In this country, every 

 now and then, one hears of good Dutch beef -beasts, though far 

 more frequently one hears complaints about them. I have never 

 seen one, that I knew to be pure bred, of better quality than 

 those I have seen either in Holland or those brought from that 

 country to the rich cattle pastures of Flanders. The good 

 bullocks shown to me on more than one occasion were, obviously, 

 merely Dutch in colour and markings, and many times I have 

 been able to establish the history of cross-breeding. Black and 

 White animals, with the typical Friesian admixture of the colours, 

 are very persistent in cross-bred cattle that carry any Dutch 

 blood in their ancestry. It is such cattle as these, I am inclined 

 to suspect, that -are the source of the rumours one constantly 

 hears of the good fleshing qualities of so-called Dutch beef- 

 beasts. 



In the preface that Dr F. H. A. Marshall has kindly written 

 for this book, he speaks emphatically (see p. vi) of the com- 

 plicated anatomical characters that go to make a good beef-beast. 

 There is a possibility that the Dutch steer may fail in one or 

 more of these characters., and it is most important that this matter 

 should be speedily put to the test of thorough and impartial in- 

 vestigation. In the interests of the breed itself it is desirable ; 

 for there have been so few real specimens available for empirical 

 observation that it may be found to be quite wrong to deny 

 good beef-making qualities to the breed. On the other hand, 

 claims are being put forward that the high prices paid at 



