DUTCH CATTLE. 117 



MIDDLESEX. 



Heport of the Committee on Dutch Cattle. 



Three animals were exhibited by Mr. Whiting, of Concord, 

 — a bull and two cows. They were entered for exhibition 

 only, there having been no entries of Dutch cattle in the 

 entr3'-book handed to the chairman of the committee, and the 

 assumption of the name Holstein, and the application of it to 

 precisely the same race of cattle by the Holstein herd-book, 

 require a re-opeuing of the question as to which name is 

 correct. 



If the Holstein breeders have no testimony other than that 

 contained in their herd-book, the weight of evidence is so 

 strongly against them, that an unprejudiced community will 

 have no hesitation in applying to the cattle imported from 

 North Holland, the name which rightfully belongs to them, — 

 Dutch. If there is to be a collective name applied to the 

 cattle of North Holland, that name is eminently proper. It 

 is the name heretofore nniversally applied to them in this 

 conntry, and recognized as their true name by undoubted 

 authority in the country and the districts from which they 

 have been imported. That cattle from Holstein were taken 

 to Holland, and there bred in sufficient numbers to warrant 

 the application of the name Holstein to the dairy-stock of 

 Holland, meets from the farmers of Holland a universal and 

 indignant denial. 



If cattle a long time bred in Holland, acknowledged by 

 their breeders to be Dutch cattle are not Dutch, what are 

 they? They certainly are not Holstein, for all prominent 

 historical writers, with one exception, admit, that the best 

 cattle of Holstein descended from Dutch stock. Any one 

 acquainted with the descendants of Dutch settlers in New 

 York and Pennsylvania, and who knows the tenacity with 

 which they cling to old customs, would hardly suppose their 

 ancestors would go far out of their own country for cattle to 

 improve their stock. 



The Dutch cattle to-day in Massachusetts are the descend- 

 ants of the oldest and purest blood of Holland, and contain 

 not admixture enough of foreign blood to warrant a change 

 of name. It is stated on page 19 of the herd-book, that live 



