DUTCH CATTLE. 121 



part of England. * * But at a more approximate period to us, 

 it appears that cattle were frequently imported from the neigh- 

 boring continent, and that they were mixed with native 

 breeds." 



" It was especially the Dutch cows that were considered the 

 best milch kinds of Northern Europe." 



There is here a very clear and evident difference made 

 between the excellent Dutch cattle and the Holstein and Jut- 

 land breeds whose origin Low traces to a Saxon colonization. 

 How Low, a few lines further on, can make the Dutch cattle 

 derive their origin from the Holstein cattle, from Avhich lines 

 the " herd-book," draws its inference, — the same occurs in 

 the French version, "whence the best Dutch races themselves 

 originate," — is incomprehensi1)le ; and it is evident Low errs, or 

 is not sufficiently acquainted Avith the history of both coun- 

 tries. For already seven centuries before the colonization in 

 England of the Jutes and Angles, the Friesians [Hollanders] 

 were known for the greater number of their cattle, as will 

 further appear. 



The foregoing quotation from Low is the only one of any 

 value contained in the " herd-book " in support of its theory, 

 and this only demands attention because the statement of a 

 great naturalist, although evidently a mistake. 



The other quotations of the " herd-book," taken from Eng- 

 lish and American writers, American German papers, etc., 

 as met with on pages 12, 13, 14, 38, 39, 40 and 41, prove 

 only that the Dutch cattle are of the greatest excellence ; and 

 that the "herd-book," in repeating on page 40, what it 

 quotes on page 13, from the German-American farmers' paper, 

 " the original stock was by no means bred in Holland, but in 

 Holstein," is not so much mistaken in the matter after all, as, 

 for reasons which it is no object of mine to surmise, bent upon 

 establishing its theory, that paper has perhaps also been led 

 astray in the footsteps of Low. 



Another remarkable expression is used — I had almost said 

 another gross falsehood is broached — by the " herd-book," in 

 tracing the origin of Dutch cattle to the Holstein breed, 

 namely, on page 41. " Everj^ spring, thousands of Holstein 

 heifers are driven to the fields of Northern Germany and Hol- 

 land, where people find it is more profitable to buy heifers than 



16* 



