372 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



The first division, milch cows, would have been of great interest to 

 American breeders and stock-raisers. I believe this subject can be 

 studied with advantage and benefit to the people of both countries, and 

 it is for this reason I deem it my duty to make this report. 



An object to be desired by the cattle-breeders of the United States 

 is an increase in tkesize of their beef cattle. This, I believe, can be ma- 

 terially aided by the importation of the large cows of the Holland and 

 Flemish races and cross-breeding them with the cattle of the United 

 States. I also believe this will be accompanied by an improvement in 

 the milking qualities. 



The outlay in time, trouble, expense, money invested, &c., is just about 

 as much to raise a poor or small steer as a large one, while the recom- 

 pense is increased as the weight increases. It needs neither illustration 

 nor argument to prove the benefit. 



The only question is its feasibility with sufficient benefit to compen- 

 sate for outlay. 



If the cattle-breeders of the United States could have seen the herd 

 of cows at this exposition, as I did, they would have been- impressed, as 

 I was, by the great size of the cows and the desire to use them in the 

 manner suggested. 



There were 372 cattle entered for exhibition, nearly every one being 

 milch cows, for the exhibition related exclusively to the miik industry. 



The races represented were the Dutch or Holland cattle, the Belgian 

 or Flemish cattle both of pure blood and some Durhams crossed with 

 these. The first two are indigenous to their respective countries, very 

 much alike, and doubtless sprang from the same stock. 1 am not sufii- 

 ciently expert to give an opinion, but I believe them to be the same, or 

 nearly the same, breed known in the United States as Holstein cattle. 



Although these cattle may have no standing in the English and Ameri- 

 can herd-books as blooded cattle, I am constrained to believe it is rather 

 a fault to be charged against the books than against the cattle, for it 

 can be demonstrated that they have an ancestry many centuries old, from 

 which, and through which, they have had a pure and unbroken descent, 

 breeding in and in, without admixture or deterioration, preserving and 

 perpetuating the characteristics and distinguishing marks of their race 

 with a great certainty, definiteness, and exclusiveness as the best blood 

 known. Motley speats of them as noted nearly three hundred years 

 ago for their size and general good qualities. 



The agricultural society of the Netherlands has within a few years 

 published a herd-book containing the pedigree of their cattle as far back 

 as it can be traced. Their examination shows the existence of this, as 

 a distinctive breed of cattle, in possession of this country as far back as 

 the thirteenth century. 



The color of the Belgian cattle is most frequently black and white, 

 while the Hollanders are the same, but sometimes with a sprinkling of 

 corn or tan color, something like that of the Alderneys. Sometimes 

 this gets to be almost red, like the Durhams. But in both the domi- 

 nant colors are black and white placed in large spots over the body ; so 

 also are the other colors, though smaller and sometimes running off into 

 flecks. Their colors are somewhat known by the celebrated paintings 

 of Paul Potter, of Amsterdam, made in the seventeenth century. 



A tolerably correct idea can be obtained of a Holland or Belgian cow 

 from the accompanying photograph ; not taken for, nor presented as an 

 entirely correct representation, but the nearest I could easily procure. 



The landscape illustration herewith gives a better idea of these cat- 

 tle; and when the traveler by rail or canal looking down, as he does, 



