108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Cassel, the Duke of Coburg, Prince Esterliazy, the Duke of 

 Rapliibor, the masters of horse of the King of Prussia and of 

 the King of Hanover, and many other dignitaries from nearly 

 every country of Europe. 



The entries in all the classes were very large, those in the 

 department of live stock counting up to 3,876, and of imple- 

 ments 2,941. Of the live stock the sheep most decidedly took 

 the lead in point of numbers. It was the largest, and, as a whole, 

 by far the finest show of sheep that I ever saw, the entries num- 

 bering 1,766. They came from all parts of the continent, and 

 from Great Britain. Next in point of numbers came the neat 

 stock, in which department there were 965 entries, the 

 entries of horses coming up to 524, the swine to 293, the poul- 

 try to 328. Where all departments were so extensively repre- 

 sented and so interesting, it is difficult to say which was the 

 most attractive. The cattle were sufficient in numbers and 

 interest to have occupied one's time during the exhibition in a 

 careful study and examination of their peculiar points. Among 

 the most striking in point of numbers were the long and beauti- 

 ful rows of black and white, which a stranger would be inclined 

 to set down as all Dutch. 



In the north of Holland there is a long arm of the German 

 ocean stretching down into the very heart of the country. It is 

 the Zuyder Zee. It is surrounded on three sides by a low and 

 marshy country, the accumulated deposit of successive ages. 

 It is cut in many directions by sluggish streams, and still more 

 sluggish canals, whose banks are so raised as to prevent the 

 rush of the tide over the green, luxuriant farms. To the west 

 of the Zuyder Zee, North Holland juts up to divide it from the 

 channel ; to the east lie Friesland and Groningen bounded on 

 the north by the ocean. The land in this stretch of country is 

 extremely rich and easily tilled. The same kind of soil in fact, 

 and the same general features characterize the whole coast line 

 from Flanders and Belgium, along round the shores of Holland 

 and Hanover as far as the Elbe, on which lies the great city of 

 Hamburg, and so still further to the north and east, taking in 

 Holstein and Schleswig. It is a magnificent stretch of marsh 

 land, much of it diked in with incredible labor, from the treach- 

 erous sea, and now covered here and there with low but com- 



