1879.] 
219 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Swiss Cattle. 
Switzerland bas long been renowned for its kine, 
and their product of cheese and butter, and the 
Swiss herders are noted in poetry and song. The 
picturesque dwellings, and attire of the herders, 
their beautifully colored cattle, gaudily decked for 1 
the fete days, and their 
pastures in romantic 
Tallies, and upon moun¬ 
tain sides, backed by 
snow and ice-covered 
granite peaks, have fur¬ 
nished numberless sub¬ 
jects for the pencil of 
the painter. To bring 
these dun or chestnut- 
colored cows from their 
peculiar surroundings 
into strictly practical 
business relations, 
where they must stand 
solely on their own 
merits as profitable 
stock for the farmer, 
would seem to be a 
hazardous experiment. 
But it has been done, 
and with substantial 
success, by Mr. D. G. 
Aldrich of Worcester, 
Mass., who possesses 
the first, and we believe 
the only, established 
herd of this breed in 
America. By the courte¬ 
sy of Mr. Aldrich, we are 
able to give portraits, 
which are presented 
on this page, from photographs of a bull and a cow 
of the Swiss breed. We have now in this country 
almost every race of valuable cattle that could be 
procured from abroad, and this breed holds a high 
position among the best of these, and promises to 
be an important acquisition to our stock, for use in 
certain localities. The habits of these cattle have 
been formed by long association with peculiar natu¬ 
ral surroundings ; they have been reared and kept 
for centuries for the dairy, and have been fed upon 
valley pastures, with comparatively light herbage ; 
from these they have 
been removed in the 
summer months, to high 
mountain sides, where 
they have grazed among 
the roughest rocks, at 
an elevation of 7,000 
feet and more above the 
sea level. As a conse¬ 
quence these cattle 
have become robust, 
vigorous, and healthful 
in constitution, active in 
movement, and thrifty 
feeders. They are there¬ 
fore well adapted to our 
hilly and mountainous 
districts, and may readi¬ 
ly become naturalized 
in New England, the 
eastern mountain dis¬ 
tricts, and the vast val- 
lies and foot hills of the 
Rocky, and more west- 
. ern mountain ranges. 
Probably no other breed 
is better prepared by 
natural adaptation to 
a wider usefulness in 
America than the Swiss. 
Having been used to 
close association with 
their owners, and almost constant herding in 
confined and narrow pastures, where the range 
.is very limited, their disposition is unusually 
gentle, and their docility has become proverbial; 
the horn of the Swiss herder with which these 
cows are called home in the evening, and the jing¬ 
ling bells which hang around their necks, to the 
music of which they march homeward without being 
driven, have been so often written about, as to be 
familiar even to those who have not traveled. These 
features are attractive, but their popularity must, 
after all, depend upon the question of profit, and 
the pail and the churn are the real tests. In this 
SWISS BULL “ALBERT TELL.” 
respect the Swiss cows have made an excellent rec¬ 
ord. “Geneva,” whose portrait is here presented, 
has given 30 quarts of milk ; averaging, for 12 days, 
26i quarts daily, and has yielded 3 lbs. of butter in 
24 hours milking. This cow was dropped in 1867, and 
was imported by Mr. Aldrich. Acow, “ Bessie,” out 
of “Geneva,” has the following record. Yield of milk 
from Nov. 1, 1877 to Dec. 31,1878, 10,905 lbs.; yield 
of butter, for the same time, 573 lbs. She dropped 
a calf on August 11, 1878, was not dry during the 
14 months, and from the 1st to the 13th of August, 
SWISS cow 
the milk was not weighed. The feed of this cow 
was roots, meal, and bran, (quantity not given), in 
the winter of 1877; grass and fodder corn in the 
summer of 1878; and hay, roots, and meal in the 
winter of that year. There are very few cows that 
can show a better record than this ; the owner 
claims it to be the best well authenticated record 
in existence. This cow was purchased from Mr 
Aldrich, by Mr. D. G Roberts, Pittsfield, Mass., in 
Oct., 1877. The bull, “ Albert Tell,” whose portrait 
is given on this page,is out of imported cow “Zuric,” 
and sired in Switzerland. These cattle are large, 
and, as the engravings show, well formed : in color 
they are light to dark 
chestnut - brown : the 
lighter shade is more 
particularly manifest in 
a narrow line along the 
back, on the inside of 
the ears, and in the hair 
between the horns ; the 
horns are short, of 
smooth texture and tip¬ 
ped with black. The 
nose is black, and is 
surrounded by a light 
colored band ; a yellow 
strip extends from the 
middle of the lower lip 
to the upper lip, and up 
the sides of the nostrils. 
The switch, hoofs, and 
tongue, are black; the 
hind leg is straight, the 
thighs wide apart, and 
the hind quarters are 
heavy. These marks 
are very persistent in 
the breed, a fact which 
denotes the purity and 
integrity of blood, 
maintained for a long 
period ; otherwise there 
would be inevitably, 
occasional cropping out 
of variations caused by reversion to irregular 
ancestry. No other principle of breeding is more 
certain than this : when a persistence in the repro¬ 
duction of form, color, and general appearance, 
is a marked characteristic, it may be taken as an 
indication, that other, and more valuable qualities 
will also be permanent. After all the obloquy that 
has been cast upon the fashion for solid colors in 
various cattle, the idea has at least this value, viz : 
that the breed is capable of reproducing a fixed type, 
and if one element of this is reproduced persistently, 
it strengthens the prob¬ 
ability that others will 
also be. In this respect, 
at least, the Swiss breed 
are strongly constituted, 
and their hereditary 
characters are remarka¬ 
bly persistent. The 
Swiss cattle fatten read¬ 
ily, and reach a weight 
of 600 to 900 pounds 
net. These cattle have 
become distributed 
among farmers in sever¬ 
al localities, and so fa, 
as we have heard they 
have proved satisfac¬ 
tory to their owners. 
The enterprise of the 
gentleman who import¬ 
ed the original herd,and 
that of Mr. Aldrich, 
who purchased it, are 
worthy of commenda¬ 
tion, and as we can not 
have too many nor to 
great a variety of good 
cattle, it is probable 
that this first -importa¬ 
tion may be followed by 
others, so that the breed 
may become as general¬ 
ly diffused as it deserves to be. It would be wise 
and important, however, that importation should 
be made with judgment and honesty, and that the 
example of some importers who are more remarka¬ 
ble for their skill in preparing herds for sale, rather 
than for choosing for merit alone, may be avoided 
