494 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



When one IS unable to bestow such nourishment on the Augeln cattle, 

 it would be advisable not to keep them, because, just as they are able 

 to make a return for their liberal keep, they are liable to recede where 

 the soil, climate, and natural conditions are unfavorable. Not only do 

 they i'all off in their milking qualities, but they sink under attacks of 

 consumption. i • . , • 



When the breed of Angelu cattle began to be cultivated in this coun- 

 try strong, nourishing fodder was far from being common, and even on 

 the larger estates much less fodder was given than in later times. 



The ruling principles in breeding were to preserve and to further 

 develop the fineness in the breed, and mainly from a scanty feeding 

 and from the early stage of calving of the young cows this fineness was 

 at times carried to a dangerous extent. Gradually, however, a reaction 

 took place in this respect, and subsequent to the agricultural meeting 

 in Copenhagen in 1869, there commenced a demand for greater body 

 development, whilst at the same time a more liberal foddering became 

 general. But it was also shown that the Angeln cattle did not disown 

 tbeir natural thriving tendencies, for the breed by degrees willingly 

 submitted to the new requirements demanded of them, and even in such 

 herds, where most advancement had been made in the direction of fine- 

 ness, but where, however, health had been preserved, good results could 

 be obtained. 



These movements in breeding Angeln cows, and the results therefrom 

 in later times, are contrary to the belief that when the necessary fine- 

 ness has been reached in any productive, breed and becomes a sign of 

 race or descent, that then a very considerable structural development, 

 both as regards body and bone surface, and therewith a corresponding 

 life existence, may be given to the animal, without any sensible loss 

 therefrom in fineness, whilst the producing properties are increased at 

 the same time. 



Sufficient attention has not always been given to these points, and 

 those who have either received their views of the Angelu breed from 

 the period when the general desire was for elegance, or from those herds 

 of the present day, where they pertinaciously hold to the same, and who 

 have scarcely paid attention to the movements of the last ten years in 

 the advanced herds of the country, can yet be astonished at what they 

 have noticed in the fineness and so-called one sided consequences in 

 dairy thrift. In those parts of this country, where one only in the 

 later years has begun to understand what dairy thrift really means, it 

 has been very hard for them to get rid of the scare which the remem- 

 brance of by-gone days associated with the ideal of a good milch cow. 



The above-mentioned experience in regard to the development of the 

 fine Angeln breed in the last ton years will, however, without any doubt, 

 soon help to dissipate this scare once for all. Even if it be taken for 

 granted that the Angeln cattle in their native home have, as before 

 stated, a weight of 750 to 800 pounds each, which calculation is from 

 1877, and thus included the ]irogress, small as it is, which the breed 

 has made even in its native home, still this weight is probably not a 

 little above what the fine Angeln cattle weighed irom the year 18G0. 

 But even if one goes out from 750 to 800 pounds for a five-year-old cow 

 a considerable increase in weight can be seen in the Angeln cattle now 

 in this country. 



For the year 1881 the following weights have been given of Angeln 

 cows on a Danish farm, namely, 17 head of cows, C five years old, that 

 had calved weighed 912 pounds i>er head; 11 head of cows, seven 4 years 

 oldj that had not calved, weighed 1,058 pounds per head; three-year-oltl 



