202 Report on the Agriculture of Sweden and Norwaij. 
(' polled ') cows are relatively rare, so that some people even maintain that such 
are not pure-bred. The horns should be long and slender, of transparent 
substance, regularly curved outwards, and a little forwards ; a width between 
the tips of the horns of 24 to 30 inches is not of uncommon occurrence. The 
head must be small and fine ; the eyes large and lively ; the nostrils large, 
and the ears thin ; the neck should be long, the body round, with straight 
back and broad hind-quarters. The milk- signs and the skin are naturally, in 
this as in every other milking race, of great importance. 
" The Thelemark breed is peculiarly a milking breed. On the Eoyal farm 
at Ladegaardsoen the best milking cows have been of this .race for the last 
three years, although animals of various breeds have been kept, and some 
rather large ones of 1000 lbs. living weight and upwards. The stock has 
therefore in the course of the last few years been changed almost exclusively 
to Thelemark cattle. Thus the cow ' Risoie ' milked in 1868, 646| gallons; 
in 1869, 720 gallons ; in 1870, 689j gallons, or on an average of 3 years 6865 
gallons, with a living weight of about 790 lbs. English weight, that is nearly 
0 lbs. of milk for each 1 lb. living weight annually, a result which bears com- 
parison with the best foreign milking breeds.* Usually the Thelemark cows 
do not milk highly immediately after calving, seldom more than 3^ gallons, 
daily, but they maintain the yield evenlj^ and do not remain long dry. It 
is also not usual that newly purchased animals give so rich a yield at first as 
afterwards ; but yet we have instances of cows which have given above 3000 
lX)ts (637 gallons) in the first year. However, such instances do not justify 
the notion that so high a yield is according to rule among newly-purchased 
Thelemark cows ; t it is naturally only in the case of exceptionally fine 
animals ; usually we must be well satisfied when a cow weighing 660 to 
770 lbs. gives 425 to 530 gallons of milk on regular good food.J 
" Like every other good milking breed, the Thelemark cows are very 
hable to milk-fever ; for which reason it is very importaut to keep them on a 
low diet lor some time before and after calving. 
" The Thelemark breed has been improved during the last few years, by 
reason of the greater attention paid to the selection of breeding-stock, and by 
better keep. The State has caused a general exhibition of cattle to be held every 
autumn at Siljord, and this has been of great advantage to the district. Besides 
the prizes distributed and the lectures delivered, there has been formed spon- 
taneously during the exhibition time a cattle-market, on rather a large scale 
in relation to Norwegian circumstances, where people from difl'erent districts 
(jf the country meet to buy and sell. Large herds are sent away every year, 
and the cows are distributed over nearly the whole country. Some animals 
have also gone to Sweden ; and in 1869 His Majesty the King purchased six 
young animals, which are at Ulriksdal. One of these, which in the same year 
gained the first prize at Siljord, was an uncommonly tine animal. 
" Some people were at first afraid that the race would degenerate in Thele- 
mark, as many of the best prize animals were sold away; but'-it has been 
* A fallapy appears to lurk in tliis argument, which supjgests thut the annual 
yield of milk per lb. living weight is a correct standard of excellence. If this 
were true, a cow which made meat and milk concurrently would be regarded as- 
unprofitable, in comparison with one that gave as much milk but became lean 
during the process. — H. M. J. 
t According to the ofTiciul statistics the average production of milk in 1865 
(the date of the last Agricultural Census) was under 210 gallons per cow. — 
H. M. J. 
X It order that it may not be thought that the above is an isolated iDstauce^ 
we refer to the report of Mr. Lindequist (Government Farm Superintendent) for 
ISlit), in which G Tlielemark cows from viiri(;us districts are instanced which all 
gave more than 3000 pots in one year ; one of them even 3584 pots (701 gallons). 
