04 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
pared with the handsome Friesian horned cattle, as a natural consequence, 
an improvement of food induced a favorable development of bod}', and, 
from the mixture of the two breeds, good and choice milch-kiue were 
attained within two or three generations of the introduction of the foreign 
blood, no matter how much the race had in the beginning deteriorated 
through the process, and, eventually, the type of Danish and German 
cuttle was quite lost. ’ This is, however, already one hundred years ago. 
A fair consideration of what has been thus far stated will leave no 
justification of the “herd-book’s” imputation upon the antiquity and 
purity of descent of our Friesian or Dutch cattle ; or its assumption 
that they are of Holstein origin. No ; the genealogy of Netherland cat- 
tle is pure and unadulterated, and it is at least two thousand years old. 
Facts as to Dutch Cattle. 
Our authority continues as follows : 
“ I come now to the present time, and the question whether it is tenablo 
to give to one variety of cattle the name of an entire group, and to 
reckon as appertaining to it all its several varieties or breeds, — as, for 
instance, the Dutch, Friesian, Oldenburg, Holstein, etc., — and would it 
not be imperative in such a case to give it the purely historical name by 
which it is generally known? If it could be desirable to give a general 
name to the cattle of the just mentioned districts, then that of Holstein 
cattle would not be appropriate, and for it should be substituted that of 
rie&ia n cattle , whence all the varieties origiuated. 
“The chief characteristics of this Friesian breed — its eminent milk- 
giving and fattening qualities — we find in all the just mentioned districts, 
and extending still further southward ; with this difference, however, 
that wherever the land is more fertile, the climate milder, and the tending, 
feeding and breeding of the cattle observed with more care, in that 
measure, and according as these requisites stand to each other in the 
closest proportion and harmony, they are more developed, attain larger 
size and are of a finer texture. 
“If the intention be to convey a correct understanding of the true 
qualities of the several varieties or breeds mentioned in their own dwelling 
places, it is better that each breed should retain the name by which it is 
known, and that no collective name, though a historical one, should bo 
given them. 
“In order to be able to readily classify a group of cattle of great 
extent, possessing the same chief qualities in form and productiveness, 
Sturm* proposed, so long as fifty years ago, to give to a group, subject 
*Dr. Sturm : “ 01 Races, Crossing and improvement of Indigenous Domestic Animal*.’* 
Elberfield. 1836. 
