DAIRY CATTLE THE DUTCH BREEDS. 



75? 



Friesian is moi e nearly correct than any other. Nevertheless, the modern 

 Dutch cow is as purely an artificially-bred animal as the Short-Horn, the 

 Hereford or the Ayrshire. They have been bred and selected with 

 scientific care so long that their character is constant and uniform in 

 capabilities for milk, and they are bred to color almost purely at the 

 whim of the breeder, one thing alone being constant. Where they are 

 white they are pure white, and where black they are pure black. Of late 

 years the name, Hoi stein -Friesian, has ))ecn authoritatively adopted. 

 XV. The Earliest Importations. 

 It is more than probable that Dutch cattle were among the first im- 

 ported to this continent, since the Dutch in their settlement of New York 

 undoubtedly brought with them the best representatives of their breeds. 

 It is recorded that in 1625 cattle were brought into the Dutch colony. 

 These were undoubtedly the true Dutch cattle, since milk and labor were 

 the two prime requisites with the colonists, and even so long ago as that 

 date, the Dutch cattle united these points in a high degree. For as long 

 ago as the early part of the seventeenth century (early in 1600) both 

 Holland and England were noted for breeds of superior and deep-milking 

 cattle. After these early importations of the Dutch and up to the early 

 part of the present century there were probably no more Dutch cattle 



imported. 



XVI. The Le Roy Importation. 



It is stated that somewhere between 1820 and 1825, Mr. Herman Le 

 Roy, a public spirited merchant of New York city, imported some in.- 

 proved Dutch cattle which were sent to his farm near the city. Between 

 1827 and 1829, some of the produce of this herd were sent to the farm of 

 his son, Edward Le Hoy, on the Genesee river. Mr. L. F. Allen de- 

 scribes this herd m 1833, as he then saw them, as being large, well-spread 

 cattle, black and white in color, and remarkable for their uncommon 

 yield of milk, and of great value as dairy animals ; their qualities in that 

 line were universally acknowledged wherever known. 



It seems unfortunate that the Le Roys, father and son, should not have 

 retained their herd pure, but such seems to have been the fact, for it is 

 known that at the sale of the farms of these gentlemen, none but grades 

 were found in the herd or in the adjacent country. 



XV IL . The Chenery Importation. 



According to the record it seems that the first imported animals tha 

 have been retained pure, were those of Mr. W. C. Chenery, near Boston, 

 m 1861. This was a bull and four cows, which were successfully bred 

 and kept pure. Mr. Chenery, previous to that time, in 1852, imported 



