438 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



bulls reared for breeding purposes ; 13,809 bulls (breeding animals) over 

 •two years old, and 91,171 oxen over two years old. In 1861 the entire 

 number of cattle was 1,060,501, including 684,842 cows over two years 

 old In 1840 there were 847,200 head of cattle, 510,475 being cows up- 

 ward of two years old; and in 1816 the figures were 681,201 entire num- 

 ber, and 398,106 cows over two years. The proportion of cows to the 

 entire number in 1883 I was unable to obtain. 



HBNEY DITHMAE, 



Consul. 



United States Consulate, 



Breslau, November 16, 1884. 



CATTLE IN THURINGIA. 



BEPOBT BT CONSUL MOSREB, OF SONNEBEBQ. 

 DESCRIPTION OP THURINGIA. 



Thuringia is a mountainous district iu Central Germany, lying in 

 about 28° to 30° longitude, and about 50° to 51° 45' latitude. Its mean 

 elevation is about 1,350 feet, and its mean annual temperature is about 

 6.5° E^aumur. The official record for Coburg (altitude, 902 feet) is as 

 follows : December to February,— 0.73°; March to May, 6.3° ; June to 

 August, 13.73° ; September to November, 6.62° (Eeaumur). 



Quite one-half of this territory is covered with forests of spruce and 

 fir, with occasional fine groves of beech, oak, and maple. The soil is 

 sandy, with a substratum of clay-slate in the southeastern half and of 

 porphyry in the northwestern. Fertile meadows and pleasant valleys 

 abound throughout the district, which yield a good quantity of fine, 

 sweet grass. The cultivated grasses are red clover and lucerne. 



The inhabitants are classed as an agricultural people, but it is a note- 

 worthy fact that nearly all the manual labor of the farm, the plowing, 

 the sowing, the planting, the haying, the harvesting, and the shovel- 

 ing, is done by the women, while the men are either in the army or are 

 engaged in the manufactorips for dolls, toys, slates, porcelain, and glass- 

 ware, which abound in this region. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE CATTLE OF THURINGIA. 



Breeds.— :The cattle in Thuringia embrace a variety of breeds, such as 

 the Allgauer, the Heilbronner, theFrankish, and the Glan, all of which 

 have sprung from the Bavarian race, which, is itself an offspring of the 

 Swiiis-brown and the Fararlberger breeds. For the purposes of this 

 report it will be sufficient to confine attention to the Allgauer c»ttle, 

 which are bred in Southern Thuringia towards the Bavarian frontier ; 

 to the Heilbronner breed, which is a cross of the red Simmenthaler 

 (Swiss) and the Frankish cattle, being found most plentifully in the 

 Dukedom of Meiningeu ; and to the Glau race, which is the prevailing 

 stock in the more mountainous regions. 



The Allgauer breed.— It is the concurrent testimony of all dairymen 

 that no pure stock can be satisfactorily bred in Thuringia. The near- 

 est approach to it is in the southern portion of the district, in the val- 

 ley of the Itz, where the Allgauer cattle are found in the best condition. 

 But even here there is a noticeable modification of the finer oharacter- 



