398 CATTLE -AND 'DAIRY FARMING. 



only reference to certain districts. There are, however, strenuous efforts 

 being made by several local cattle-breeding associations for the intro- 

 duction of a general herd -book, and the German Cattle-breeding and 

 Herd-book Society, founded in Berlin in the year 1880, has already laid 

 down the fundamental principles for such a record book. 



CATTLE-BREEDING OF GERMANY. 



Live stock in Germany is comparatively not very dense in any district. 

 Northern and Northeastern Germany, with the exception of Schleswig- 

 Holstein and the marshy districts in Oldenburg, is especially poor in 

 cattle and stand in striking contract with the proportionate cattle 

 richness in the fertile regions of South, Middle, and Western Germany. 

 The head center in cattle-breeding is to be found in the Kingdoms of 

 Bavaria and Wurtemberg, where 3,000 to 4,000 head of cattle average 

 to a German square mile. The poorest districts in cattle are East Pom- 

 erania, the province of Brandenburg, the Lunneburger Heath, and the 

 low German moorlands with but 500 to 700 head to a square mile. 



This district (Barmen), the narrow Valley of the Wupper, being flanked 

 by a chain of wooded hills on both sides, and the soil being clayish and 

 stony, is chiefly and almost exclusively devoted to industrial pursuits. 

 Agriculture could find neither encouragement nor development, and in 

 consequence thereof cattle-breeding could not bo fostered. Cattlo- 

 breeding not having the least foothold in this district, all the cattle have 

 to be imported for dairy and slaughtering purposes. In preparing this 

 report 1 am, therefore, unable to furnish the desired information as to 

 cattle-breeding in this district, so am constrained to dwell but on the 

 general features of the stock of cattle, and lay the most stress on the 

 compilation of statistical tables and the^omparative statements of the 

 status of these cloven-footed animals in other German districts and 

 other European countries. 



THE SEVERAL BREEDS IN GERMANY. 



There are but few distinctly pure breeds in Germany, as the Dutch. 

 (Flemish), East Friesland, Munsterland, Holstein, and Algau breeds. 



The Dutch breed takes the first rank and furnishes the best and most 

 prolific milch cows. They are generally heavy built and of red-check- 

 ered color. 



The East Friesland breed is of a lighter frame, of dark-checkered 

 color, and as to the quantity of milk second only to the Dutch cows. 



The Munsterland is the next best breed. These cows are of a medium 

 size, of reddish color, and their yield of milk is comparatively copious. 



The Holstein breed is somewhat inferior to the foregoing, but is, how- 

 ever, of great productiveness and furnishes large supplies of slaugh- 

 tering cattle for the English markets. 



The Algau breed is the main one in Southern Germany and is fre- 

 quently used for interbreeding purposes in Bavaria and Wurtemberg. 



Other breeds produced by heterogeneous crossings, and consequently 

 mixed ones, are to be found all over Germany, nearly every district 

 throughout the German Empire possessing its peculiar breed. 



In Southern Germany Swiss cattle are very frequently drawn upon 

 for breeding purposes, and in the eastern provinces occasional crossings 

 take place between German and Kussian stock. On the whole these 

 local breeds have not been improved in their succeeding generations. 

 The Dutch and East Freisland breeds, which are driven into almost 

 every German district, may be considered the predominant pure breeds 

 in Germany. 



