304 THE BREEDS OF LIV E-STOCK 
Durcu Beitrep CattLe. Figs. 53, 54. 
By Frank R. Sanders 
338. Dutch Belted cattle are a dairy breed. Their 
native home is in Holland, where they are known as Laken- 
felds, Lakenvelders or Veldlarkers, which means literally 
a field of white, but conveys the idea of a white body with 
black ends. 
339. History in Holland. — The early history of this 
breed is not fully understood, but from the records obtain- 
able, and from conversation with several of the oldest 
breeders in Holland, it seems that these cattle began to 
flourish about 1750, and no doubt the system of selection 
by which this marvelous color breeding was attained, dates 
back into the sixteenth century. One breeder says his 
father informed him that there were gentlemen of wealth 
and leisure near what is now called Haarlem, North Hol- 
land, who conceived the idea of breeding animals of all kinds 
to a certain color, chiefly with a broad band of white in the 
center of the body, with black ends. These noblemen had 
large estates, and it is said that for more than 100 years 
they and their descendants worked on the perfection of 
these peculiar color-markings, until they produced belted 
cattle, pigs and poultry. That these breeders were wonder- 
fully successful, no one questions, as we have the results 
of their labors in the Dutch Belted cattle, Lakenvelder 
poultry of England and America, the Lancheswine of Hol- 
land and Germany and the Hampshire swine of America, 
which were supposed to originate in Hampshire, England, 
but undoubtedly are the descendants of the Haarlem herds 
of long ago. All of these breeds possess a belt, and carry 
out the idea of their originators in a marvelous degree. 
