118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



everything else that is eatable. If then they come out poorly 

 in spring, he knows the rich, sweet, mountain pastures will soon 

 bring them up. It is astonishing with what care the grasses for 

 winter hay are husbanded, in those regions; one would suppose it 

 was the chief duty of man, woman and child to make hay while 

 the sun shines all through the season. Boys use the sickle in 

 almost inaccessible nooks, where it is often dangerous to climb, 

 and very few clumps of grass are allowed to ripen where it is 

 possible for human ingenuity to reach. 



As I alluded, at some length, in my last Annual Report, to the 

 Hungarian cattle and the vast plains which they cover, it would 

 not be proper to dwell upon them here, were it not that they 

 are probably the true original type and source of the horned 

 cattle of Europe and America, and that they were pretty well 

 represented at the show. 



The true Hungarian stock, which how appears to be indige- 

 nous to the vast plains which cover more than a third of all 

 Hungary, would appear to have been introduced originally at the 

 time of the immigration of the Huns themselves. They were a 

 nomadic people, devoting their attention to the tending of cattle, 

 and it is not probable that they would have established themselves 

 in their new homes without bringing along their flocks and herds. 

 This opinion seems to be confirmed by the fact that the same 

 race still exists with but slight modifications, such as would be 

 expected to arise from difference of treatment, climate and soil, 

 in the Ukraine, in Moldavia, Bukowine, Volhynia, Podolia and 

 Wallachia ; and, in fact, throughout all the plains of the south- 

 east of Europe covering the Crimea and the shores of the Black 

 Sea and the Sea of Azof, as well as on the fiat countries along 

 the borders of Asia, and along the Ural Mountains, to Siberia. 

 Taking the whole of Hungary proper, including Croatia and 

 Sclavonia, the number of these cattle would amount to from 

 four and a half to five million head, of which about one-third 

 are males and two-thirds females. This pure indigenous race 

 not only covers the plains but the undulating or hilly districts, 

 embracing, together, five-sixths of the whole country. In the 

 mountainous parts, there is said to be a mixed breed, small in 

 size, the result of a cross of the Hungarian and some stock from 

 the neigliboring countries on the north. 



