186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The Cattle. — It was thought that no race of cattle, that did 

 not unite the different good qualities in the highest degree, 

 would be adapted to the wants of Hohenheim ; and no race 

 prominent for one quality, as for instance, for milk, the yoke, 

 or beef, would answer the necessity. After a fair trial of the 

 Dutch, the English, the black and white Bernese, the Swytzer, 

 the Montafoner, the Allgauers, the Hungarians, the Triesdorfer, 

 the Ansbacher, the Haller and the Limbourger, it was found 

 that the qualities most desired, were united in the greatest 

 degree of perfection in the Simmenthalers. Since their first 

 introduction, in 1835, they have constantly increased ; and now 

 the whole herd, except one, of from 80 to 100 head, are either 

 pure, or nearly pure bred Simmenthalers. The Allgauers are 

 admitted to be better for milk ; but, taking color and all other 

 characteristics into consideration, the Simmenthalers carried 

 the day. No experiments are now made to test the comparative 

 merits of different breeds, either at Hohenheim, or at any other 

 agricultural school that I visited in Europe. 



These cattle are all uniform in color, of a yellowish or tawny 

 brown, approaching to red. They have mostly been raised on 

 the farm, from fourteen cows and two bulls, which were selected 

 in the Canton of Berne, in Switzerland, in 1835 ; and a second 

 purchase of sixteen cows and two bulls, in 1838 ; and a third, of 

 seventeen cows in 1844. The horn is short, the skin yellow, 

 soft and mellow to the touch, mostly good handlers ; the barrel 

 large, the quarters well developed, back straight, chest full and 

 well formed. The head is somewhat inclined to be coarse in 

 many of them, as well as the dewlap ; while the shoulders and 

 neck also of the bulls are too large and coarse. The males are 

 inferior to the females in the form and structure of the fore- 

 quarters, head, neck and shoulders. They weigh from 1,200 

 to 1,350 pounds, some considerably exceeding that. Prof. Rau 

 informed me that they would average about 1,300 ; but the 

 whole stock is weighed every year, and the average 'weight 

 depends a little upon the condition of the cows at the time of 

 the weighing, the number in calf, the quality of their feed at 

 the time^ and other circumstances. In 1847, for instance, 78 

 weighed 69,607 pounds. In the spring of 1859, 104 head 

 weighed 88,920 pounds, an increase of 19,213 pounds. The 

 general average of all the weighings, between 1846 and 1862, 



