38 BOARD OF AGEICULTUEE. 



descend immediatel}' from the cattle of the Frieslanders and Bata- 

 vians, who, from three to one hundred years before Christ, popu- 

 lated the country north of the present large rivers, Waal and the 

 Rhine, as well as the surrounding districts, and dealt there in cattle 

 and fish, in so far as they were not forced to join the army against 

 the Romans. 



The animals were used for the production of milk, meat and 

 hides. At the time of the hierarchy of the Romans, who were 

 more regular in their tending of cattle, there was an improvement 

 made, and better attention was paid to the feeding and tending of 

 cattle, according to the way of the Romans, which is discernible 

 even now in several distinctive usages on large countr}^ seats of the 

 present da}'. In the old " Heerenhuis" (well fortified castle), with 

 its multitudinous stablings for horses, in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood whereof are promenades, kitchen gardens, cascades, fields, 

 orchards, duck-ponds, canals, rivulets and ditches and the peasants' 

 cottages, with their cow stables and granaries, all surrounded by a 

 river ramification, we behold the image of an old Roman villa, with 

 its appurtenances. 



In the arrangement of these there is a change and decided im- 

 provement, 3'et, although possessions may have become somewhat 

 smaller, everything points to an imitation of the Roman villas. It 

 is important to notice this in order to understand thereby that 

 for many centuries the stabling, feeding, tending, as well as the 

 manner in which the animals were most profitabl}^ disposed of, have 

 probably remained the same, and that, therefore, the cattle have 

 received the same treatment in the same climate for all that length 

 of time. 



The same species interbreeding continually, with little or no 

 adulteration from abroad, the identical breed remained natural!}' 

 free from foreign elements. Notwithstanding the decrease of cattle 

 through various causes, as floods, plagues and wars, breeding was 

 still continued, and onl}' that class introduced which was identical 

 with the lowland breed ; so that, through intermingling, right treat- 

 ment and the fertility of the soil, the imported animals soon took 

 on the inherent qualities of the home breed. The age and purity 

 of the breed can thus be safely estimated at two thousand years, and 

 the preservation of the form proper to the breed is owing entirely 

 to climate, feeding, tending and practice having remained the same 

 for hundreds of years. Hence the cattle have obtained a distinct 

 type, or ground form, which through inheritance remains constant 

 to itself. This form of body may be called the "milk shape." 



