228 
27th report, bureau oe animal industry. 
of the records^ it is evident that the cattle introduced at James- 
town, Va., were from English breeds, with some mixture of Spanish 
cattle from the West Indies. In New York the cattle w^ere largely 
of Dutch origin. In Pennsylvania the cattle were brought over by 
the Dutch and Swedish settlers. At Plymouth, Mass., the cattle were 
brought from Holland and England. The ships which arrived at 
Boston contained mostly English breeds, the Devon predominating. 
In New Hampshire Capt. Mason introduced a large yellow^ breed 
fr(5m Denmark. In Canada the importations were largely from 
France. 
In the West Indies, Mexico, and Central and South America the 
cattle were nearly all from Spanish stock until within recent 3^ears. 
Many good breeding animals from improved breeds have been im- 
ported from Europe and the United States to Argentina and other 
countries of South and Central America during the past 50 years. 
Humped cattle of India (zebus) have also been imported to Texas 
and the West Indies, because of their supposed immunity from Texas 
■fever, and the crosses with native cows have thus far been A^ery suc- 
cessful. 
Although we speak of the different breeds of cattle that were 
brought to America, there were many nondescripts, and but few if 
any would be recognized as belonging to any type of our modern 
purebreds until Messrs. Miller and Gough imported what were sup- 
posed to be pure Shorthorns in 1783. With the exception of the Hol- 
steins and the Brown Swiss, but few cattle from other countries have 
been imported except from the British Islands. 
Cattle not being native to America, there are no strictly American 
breeds, but, owing to differences in climate, care, and ideals of Ameri- 
can breeders, the European breeds which have been brought to 
America have nevertheless changed to some extent. Occasionally a 
strain of improved stock has arisen as a sport, or by careful selection 
of the stock has obtained a local reputation as a breed, such as the 
Gore breed, well known in New England 75 years ago, and still later 
the American Holderness in New York; but, up to the present time, 
with the exception of the Polled Durham and the French- Canadian, 
none of the so-called American breeds has obtained anything like 
a national reputation. 
CLASSIFICATION OF MODERN BREEDS. 
Early classifications of breeds were based upon their geographical 
distribution. Sturm, in 1825, gave the classification of lowland, 
upland, and mountain breeds. Later, the factor of color was taken 
1 The results of a study of the early importations of cattle in America and cattle 
breeding in colonial times will be given more in detail in a later paper. 
