CHAPTER III. 



OBSERVATIONS OF PROF. ROBERTS AND OF J. H. KLIPPART. 



American skill and enterprise find in this breed peculiar material on which 

 to work. It is as hardy as the American scrub, it has no hereditary tendencies 

 to disease of any kind, and it is peculiarly plastic in its adaptations, as may 

 be seen by its perfect acclimation in the rigorous climate of Archangel, as well 

 as in the sunny climate of France. 



And as an object of pleasure and beauty no cattle respond more generously 

 or appear more picturesque on a background of green fields and none are more 

 emblematic of rural wealth and content. 



' 'I had the good fortune," said Prof. I. P. Roberts of Cornell University, N. Y. , 

 in an address before the New York Dairymen's Association, "to spend some time 

 in North Holland and Friesland, a country usually ignored by the tourist though 

 full of instructive sights and quaint old customs. Here in ancient grass bot- 

 tomed lakes, snatched from the inroads of the sea by the greatest skill and labor 

 the world has ever known, I found the ideal milk producer. Situated in a level, 

 rich, moist country, well adapted to the production of forage grasses, with the 

 climate cool but equable in summer, but raw, windy and cold in winter; here 

 favored, yet unfavored by nature, these clean, plain, intelligent Dutch have 

 reduced to a science the economical production of milk. Of course this could 

 not be done without a good cow and if anywhere on the face of the globe there 

 exists a race of uniformly good milkers, the Dutch haVe them. I care not what 

 a man's prejudices may be, whether an admirer of the fawn-eyed Jersey or (like 

 myself), of that grand old breed the Shorthorn, the stately Hereford or of the 

 piebald Ayrshire, if he really admire a good cow he cannot help falling in love 

 with the picturesque Holstein as seen in its native pastures in the north coun- 

 try. He may return to his American home and conclude that his circumstances 

 are better adapted to some other breed, but he will ever after speak of them 

 only with praise. 



" I have said they were a race of good milkers and I think I have not put it 

 too strong when I say truthfully, that neither from Beemster Polder northward, 

 nor in Friesland did I see what might be called a poor cow or an old cow, though 

 I saw many hundreds. Here are people occupying lands which are seldom sold 

 for less than five hundred dollars per acre, more frequently for a thousand and 

 upwards, producing butter and cheese and placing it upon the European market 

 in successful competition with that produced on lands less than a tenth of their 

 value. 



"With these facts staring us in the face it looks quite possible that we might 

 learn something of more economical production from these mis-called dumb 

 Dutch, notwithstanding they still cut their grass by hand, have no tongues or 

 thills to their farm wagons, and wear wooden shoes. Without a herd book 

 until quite recently and without any great leaders or improvers in cattle breed- 

 ing as found in Bake well, Colling, Bates and Booth in England, these quiet peo- 

 ple, having no common-sense and universal method, long since formed a distinct 

 breed of cattle that surpasses in their locality all others so far as tried. Jerseys 

 have been introduced but cannot secure a footing. Here and there at long inter- 

 vals we find an effort has been made to improve by a cross of the English bull, 

 but so far as I could learn deterioration in milking qualities has resulted with 

 but slight compensating improvement in beef quality. 



"The details of ancient breeding and management of the Holsteins have not 

 been handed down to us as that of the Shorthorn, but from the location and 

 habits of the people, we may fairly infer that they differed but slightly, if at all, 

 from those of modern times. Having unusually fine facilities I tried to study 

 carefully their present methods and also their results. 



" In the first place but few bulls are kept and these but two or three years at 

 most, when they are sold to the market for beef. These bulls are selected with 

 the utmost care, invariably being the calves of the choicest milkers. But little 

 attention is paid to fancy points or color, though dark spotted is preferred to 

 light spotted, though more attention is now being paid to color in order to suit 



(18) 



