HOLSTEm CATTLE. 41 



cattle. A groom was sent along for the express purpose of 

 taking care of them." 



It fell to the lot of the writer to make the next importation 

 of cattle from Holland for Madison County, N. Y., seventy- 

 five years later, and the description of the importation of the 

 last century is an accurate one of the importation of 1869, 

 with one exception ; the animals imported in 18(39 did re- 

 markabl}'^ well and exceeded all previous milk records made 

 in that section of the State. 



In Vol. I., H. H. B., the late Winthrop W. Chenery says : 

 '' Holstein cattle were introduced into this country about the 

 year 1G25, by the West India Company, and other importa- 

 tions were subsequently made into the State of New York 

 by the early Dutch settlers there. At a later date, about 

 1810, the late Hon. Wm. Jarvis brought over a bull and two 

 cows, which he placed on his farm in Weathersfield, Vermont, 

 where they were bred successfully for a time and acquired a 

 good local reputation ; but several years previous to the 

 death of ]\Ir. Jarvis, in 1859, the pure blood of his importa- 

 tion became extinct." 



Allen says ; " The late Mr. Herman Le Roy of New York 

 imported some improved Dutch cattle into that city and kept 

 them on a farm in its vicinity. Some of them were, about 

 the years 1827-29, sent to the ftirm of his son, the late 

 Edward A. Le Roy, on the Genesee River in that State. 

 We saw them and their produce there in 1833. They were 

 large, \^ell-shaped cattle, black and white in color and re- 

 markable for their uncommon yield of milk. In the herds 

 of both father and son the pure breed was lost. It is to be 

 regretted that the blood of these importations should have 

 been so soon lost by lack of interest in their propagation. 

 They were of great value as dairy animals, as their qualities 

 in that line were universally acknowledged where they were 

 knovvn." 



The next importations were made by the late Winthrop 

 W. Chenery of Belmont, Mass., in 1852, 1857, 1859 and 

 18G1. 



Mr. Chenery was the first to esta])lish and maintain a 

 purely bred herd of this valuable breed in America. The 

 startling milk and butter records made by cows in his herd, 



