1882.] 
AMEEICAIST AGEICULTUEIST. 
13 
The Cattle of Holland. 
The Dutch farmers have long been famous 
as butter and cheese-makers, and the dairy 
cattle of Holland—especially of North Hol¬ 
land and Friesland—have been regarded on 
the continent of Europe as the best dairy 
cattle of the 
world. They have 
been carefully 
bred according to 
practical rules— 
not according to 
our English or 
Anglo - American 
ideas altogether 
—but so that we 
have a remarka¬ 
ble result before 
us, in the best 
breed of Dutch 
cattle of the pres¬ 
ent day. The cows 
are black and 
white, of the 
largest size, “big 
as Shorthorns,” 
and admirably 
well formed as 
milk producers. 
The Dutch cow 
usually has a ca¬ 
pacious paunch, a 
large udder and - v 
teats, great 
branching, tortu¬ 
ous milk-veins, an “ escutcheon ” of the most 
favorable promise, and a general preponder¬ 
ance of the digestive and lactiferous parts 
over the other portions of the body. Their 
milk is moderately rich, yielding excellent 
butter, but while this has not so positive and 
delicious a flavor, nor such good color as that 
of the Channel Island cows, yet it is firm, 
and has the repu¬ 
tation of keeping 
better than the 
butter of any 
other of the pure 
breeds. For cheese 
making, however, 
the milk has no 
superior. This is 
supposed to be 
owing to the fact 
that the butter 
globules are, 
though not large, 
of a very uniform 
size, and are easi¬ 
ly mixed thor¬ 
oughly with the 
milk before and at 
the time of coagu¬ 
lation, or curd¬ 
forming. This 
gives the cheese 
a uniformity of 
richness in all its 
parts, which is in¬ 
herent in the in¬ 
timate texture of 
the curd* and 
which does not depend upon subsequent mix¬ 
ture. Like other large breeds, these cows 
require abundant feed, gently rolling or level 
land, and do best on rich alluvial meadows 
like those of their native “ Ilollowland,” as 
Waring calls it. In this respect they are like 
the Shorthorns, with which noted race one 
has a natural inclination to compare them. 
When first introduced into this country by 
Winthrop W. Chenery, Esq., of Boston, thirty 
odd years ago, the Dutch cattle were seen 
more or less at the fairs, and compared un¬ 
favorably, to our unschooled eyes, with the 
THE FIRST PRIZE HOLSTEIN BULL “UNCLE TOM.” 
trim beef-bearing Shorthorns. They were 
called “big-framed,” “bony,” “coarse 
brutes,” “elephantine,” and all that—ad¬ 
mitted, however, to be great milk-producers. 
Since that time these cattle have not changed, 
but our ideas have. We sec their extraordi¬ 
nary adaptation to the dairy, and even Short¬ 
horn breeders acknowledge that their favorite 
THE FIRST PRIZE HOLSTEIN COW “ NETHERLAND QUEEN. 
breed, always vaunted as great milkers, as a 
race cannot compare with them in this re¬ 
spect, while as beef animals the cattle of Hol¬ 
land fatten quickly and make excellent beef, 
which is really all that a dairyman needs to 
know. They are not, and never will be, 
raised exclusively for beef as the Shorthorns 
are, and their whole build and “make up” 
contrasts, as it should, strongly with any 
beef-making race. Viewed from a beef- 
breeder’s standpoint, the cows are not sym¬ 
metrical, but the dairyman demands this 
lack of symmetry, and it fills his eye just in 
proportion as it 
promises to fill his 
pails. He looks 
for excessive de¬ 
velopment of the 
“business end" 
in his cow, just 
as much as the 
beef-breeder looks 
for thickness of 
meat over the ribs 
and loin, and for 
full crops and 
close twists. A 
milk cow must 
have udder and 
teats, and milk- 
veins, and es¬ 
cutcheon. See 
the accompany¬ 
ing engraving. 
She must have 
also a good head, 
mouth, and teeth, 
and a capacious 
paunch. What¬ 
ever else she has 
are of secondary 
interest, and may 
be said to be of little account, provided they 
are of useful proportions and adapted to her 
needs. A soft, unctuous hide is indication of 
health, a good coat is a protection against 
vicissitudes of weather; her feet and legs 
must be capable of sustaining her. weight 
without fatigue, and of good form, not too 
large and bony. Everything which is of 
secondary impor¬ 
tance may be re¬ 
duced in the de¬ 
velopment of the 
milch cow to its 
smallest useful 
size. When this 
occurs we have 
the true wedge 
shape of the per¬ 
fect milch cow— 
remarkably seen 
in the Dutch cow, 
and really char¬ 
acteristic of the 
Holstein breed, as 
it is also of the 
Ayrshires, and of 
other great milk¬ 
ing races. It was 
a surprise to Mr. 
Chenery to find 
that cattle breed¬ 
ers in this coun¬ 
try knew abso¬ 
lutely nothing 
about these fine 
i) cattle, and so to 
hide their origin 
he gave them a ‘ ‘ trade name ” which it seems 
absolutely discreditable to American intel¬ 
ligence to continue to use. Dutch they are, 
Friesian they may be. What they are called at 
home, except “ good cows,” we do not know, 
but we do know that they did not come from 
