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The British Friesian. 



[Aug. , 



and exceptional milkers can be traced in his descendants. 

 Another early herd that proved of great assistance to pioneers 

 was that of Earl Egerton of Tatton, who bred Hedges Tatton 

 King, a bull used by Mr. Hugh Brown, of Colton, and by his 

 brother, Mr. John Brown, of Hertford (later of St. Albans). 

 After the Hawkrigg and Tatton herds had been dispersed, the 

 breed was preserved by these two brothers, who developed the 

 Colton and Hedges herds, the latter still in existence, to make 

 history for the black-and-white cattle. 



General Appearance. — British Friesian cattle are large in 

 frame ; they are of true milking type ; and they possess the 

 characteristics of dual-purpose cattle, rapidly putting on flesh 

 when dry. The predominant colours are black and white, in 

 about equal proportions. The colours must be very sharply 

 denned, with very distinct patches. The head is long, and should 

 be fine, with width between the eyes and at the muzzle. The 

 horns are fine, curving inwards and keeping level with the poll ; 

 the neck is clean cut, fairly slender, but not too long ; the chest 

 is deep, with great thickness through the heart; the withers 

 fine ; the coupling long, and the belly low and exceptionally 

 capacious, width and strength at the loins and a great spring of 

 rib are essentials to allow for a tremendous barrel; the hind- 

 quarters are broad, long and level, with greater width at the 

 tail-head and through the thurls than in any other breed; the 

 buttock is wide and flat; and the legs straight and strong. 



Characteristics of the Breed. — Milk Production. — The out- 

 standing recommendation of the breed is the extent to which 

 the milk-producing properties have been and can be developed. 

 Having been carefully and specially bred in Holland for 

 centuries, the breed has the constitution to stand the strain 

 of phenomenal production, the capacity to transmute 

 large quantities of rough food into valuable merchandise 

 and the ability to reproduce heavy yielders. The reports 

 of the official milk-recording societies operating throughout the 

 year under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture furnish 

 ample proof of the value of the breed for milk yield. For two 

 years in succession the Government's Annual Register of Dairv 

 Cows has shown the eight heaviest yielders to be of the British 

 Friesian breed, and in the matter of herd averages the breed 

 has also led the way. Rome idea of the progress made by 

 this breed may be gathered from (he fact that the first British 

 cow to yield 2,000 gallons of milk in one year appeared early 



