122 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to raise them ; and the name of the breed got confused, so 

 that the name 'Holland cow,' was here translated into 'Dutch 

 cow,'" etc. ! What, m the name of common-sense, next? 



The "herd-book" takes the unwarranted liberty, whenever 

 it should speak of Dutch cattle, of adding immediately after, 

 the word "Holstein." It gives to Holsteiu cattle, purchased 

 in .North Holland, — and of which the first importation took 

 place in Massachusetts in 1852, afterward in 1857, etc., but 

 the greatest in 1861, — all the honor the Dutch cattle so 

 abundantly deserve, and appears to have made the geograph- 

 ical blunder of supposing North Holland, Friesland, Groningen 

 and Oldenburg as belonging to Holstein. 



The thesis so arbitrarily adopted and set forth by the 

 "herd-book," that the large black-and-white cattle imported 

 into North America from the Netherland provinces of North 

 Holland and Friesland, have " undoubtedly descended from 

 the original stock of Holstein," as it proclaims on page 9, 

 requires a most decided denial and refutation for the honor 

 and reputation of Dutch cattle ; and, without being led astray 

 by the most strangely jumbled-up references mentioned, I 

 wish to point out, — 



1st. That the history of the Dutch or Holland cattle dates 

 further back than that of Holsteiu ; 



2d. That the Holstein cattle descend from the Dutch ; and 



3d. That the name of " Holstein cattle " is only a local ap- 

 pellation for a peculiar indigenous breed, constituting only 

 one of several appertaining to the same group, namely, to 

 the group of the Lowland races, of which the Dutch breed is 

 the fundamental type. To this I now proceed. 



According to the "Allgemeine Deutsche Real Encyclo- 

 pedia," * the origin of Holstein-Schleswyck lies buried in 

 obscurity, and Holsteiu was probably visited by the Cimbri ; 

 while a century after, the Roman Emperor, Csesar Tiberius, 

 arrived with his army and fleet before the mouth of the Elbe, 

 without, however, setting foot on the Holstein shore. Accord- 

 ing to Tacitus, it may be stated, that the Holstein Baltic 

 coast was inhabited as far as Mecklenburg and Sleswyck, by 

 seven petty German tribes, of whom the Angles and Warnes 

 have preserved their names down to the present time ; while 



* Leipsic. F. A. Brockhaus, 1866, 8th part, p. 57, etc. 



