126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



beautiful quality of tlieir dairy product. Any country that can 

 surpass Normandy in butter and cheese may pride itself, with 

 justice, upon its high agricultural position. 



The color of the cattle of Auge is varied and mixed, some- 

 times red, sometimes white, sometimes black, often with these 

 colors mingled, and often with a coat like the Bretons and the 

 Dutch. Many maintain that these cattle came from the same 

 source as the Dutch. Tiiey are still called Dutch by many 

 farmers. 



North of the region grazed by the Normans, just mentioned, 

 is the country of the Flamands, a highly important race of dairy 

 cows. They are pretty generally spread over the department 

 Du Nord, the Fas de Calais, &c., and are so highly prized that 

 many are to be found in the dairies around Paris. I saw them 

 at the imperial dairy at Vincennes, near Paris, in competition 

 with the Swiss, the Ayrshire and others. 



It may be remarked that the Dutch have been largely intro- 

 duced and mixed with the cattle of Belgium and the north of 

 France, and many of the established breeds or families show 

 evident signs of a connection, not very remote, with the marsh 

 races already alluded to. 



The Flamand cow is generally red with more or less brown, 

 sometimes marked with white. It is found in its greatest 

 purity around Dunkirk, and so on through Hazebrouck and 

 Lille. This is a region of great drained marshes, dyked in like 

 those in Holland. The pastures are shaded and rich, the culti- 

 vation of the highest character. I passed through a part of 

 this rich section in July, when the crops were waving in every 

 field with the utmost luxuriance, wheat covering a large extent, 

 fields of poppies of many acres in extent in full blossom. There 

 are no fences here. The view is unobstructed except by the 

 magnificent shade and ornamental trees", of which there are 

 immense numbers, and of course the cattle are soiled for the 

 most part, though tethered out in many cases, and never turned 

 out, as with us, in large pastures. 



The Flamand cow is a fine dairy animal, rather above the 

 medium size, ranging from 1,000 to 1,250 pounds live weight. 

 The head is fine, the muzzle pointed, the horns squarely set, 

 fine, projecting forward, but turned up at the points, white or 

 yellowish and black at the extremities; the ear is delicate, the 



