126 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



another remarkable particular in the history of the Dutch- 

 cattle cultivation. The " herd-book," unable to maintain the 

 priority of the name Holstein from an earlier history of Hol- 

 land and Holstein, might then, perhaps, seek its testimony in 

 a later period, and the events to which your attention is now 

 called. 



From the fourteenth on till the eighteenth century, a large 

 number of Danish oxen were annually turned for pasture into 

 the grassy meadows of North Holland, — formerly West Fries- 

 land, — and sold at the weekly North Holland cattle-market. 

 The oldest of these cattle-markets is that of the city of Hoorn. 

 This market was already established in 1311, and, in 1389, 

 the Danes and inhabitants of the Eyder were allowed by 

 Albrecht, duke of Bavaria, to hold a weekly market there. 

 In 1605, the Danish cattle-market w^as removed from Hoorn 

 and transferred to Enkhuyzen, when, in 1624, the numljcr of 

 1,179 oxen were sold.* There was also in Amsterdam a lean 

 cattle-market, beginning in the spring, in the month of April, 

 but held at irregular periods, depending upon wind and 

 weather, when cattle were allowed to be conveyed from 

 Denmark and Holstein hither to graze. These were mostly 

 brought by vessel, f 



These importations of Danish and Holstein cattle into North 

 Holland, to which the "herd-book" might refer, did not 

 consist of "heifers," as stated on page 41, but of lean oxen, 

 which were pastured on the fertile meadows of the Polders, 

 and afterward sold at the markets of Hoorn, Enkhuyzen and 

 Amsterdam as fat cattle. As to heifers, either then or now, 

 having l)een imported from Holstein into Friesland and North 

 Holland for breeding purposes, no such thing is known. 



To withhold nothing, and to put nothing in a distorted 

 light, I may add, that in the middle of the 18th century 

 several importations took place into Friesland of Danish cattle, 

 consisting of young calves. This was at the time of the rag- 

 ing of the cattle-plague, which desolating disease carried oflf 

 thousands of the finest cattle in Friesland and Holland. 



For the purpose of keeping the cattle-trade alive, and to 



* G. J. Hcngevcld, Cattle, Vol. II., and G. Brank, History of Enkhuyzen. 

 t T. Domselaer, Description of Amsterdam, 1655, Vol. III., p. 194 and Vol. IV., 

 p. 237. 



