Vol. LXXII:, No. 4220. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 25 
WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR 
THE HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN COW. 
Fair Statement for the Black and White. 
The “best cow” belongs to so many different 
breeds that it would be a bold man or a strong 
partisan who would venture to assign her to any 
one of them. It would be equally difficult to say 
\\ liich breed furnishes the most comely specimens 
of bovine beauty, for personal predilections enter 
largely into the estimates of comparative values, 
and tastes differ in the matter of looks. I think 
(hat it is safe to say, however, that up to at least 
comparatively recent times in this country, the men¬ 
tion of purebred cattle would have brought to most 
(he vision of graceful Jerseys or sturdy Short-horns. 
To many, it would do so yet, but another breed is 
now competing for popular favor, and in many 
places the dairy landscape is being done over in 
(he black and white of the IIolstein-Friesian cow. 
Away back in the 
mists of antiquity the 
ancient Friesians and 
North Hollanders oc¬ 
cupying that portion of 
the Netherlands border¬ 
ing upon the North Sea 
were keeping cattle, and 
the lineal descendants 
of those cattle are still 
bred by the Hollanders 
of to-day. They are not 
now confined to Hol¬ 
land, however, but are 
spread over the civil¬ 
ized world, carrying 
with them the name 
and fame of their Dutch 
ancestry. Though the 
rich, low pastures of 
Holland are limited in 
area, and their cattle 
comparatively few in 
number, that country 
has long been a heavy 
exporter of butter and 
cheese, showing that in 
the skilled hands of the 
Dutch their cattle have 
been brought to a high 
state of productivity. 
Not only has the yield 
of the Hoi steins, as they ST 
are popularly called, 
Im'i'ii greatly increased through these long cen¬ 
turies of breeding, but their type has been thor¬ 
oughly fixed so that wherever they go they carry 
with them their own dominant characteristics and 
impress them upon other cattle with which they 
mix. 
Conditions upon American dairy farms have 
changed radically within a few years, and farm 
Matter making has taken a subordinate place in 
•biiry industry. r rhe great cities of the Eastern 
Elates are calling for more and more whole milk, 
mid the sources of their supply are being continually 
“xtended. This movement places an increasing 
number of farmers each year in the market milk 
"lies. With the decline of home butter-making and 
l,) e extension of the market for whole milk, it is 
1,1 natural that there should be an increasing de- 
“mnd for heavy producing cows and that compar¬ 
atively little attention should be paid to the per- 
• outage of butter fat' in the milk, so long as this 
1 s not tall below reasonable requirements. No 
<>ne ' vould claim for the Holsteins that their milk 
excels in richness, but. on the other hand, no one 
can deny that, as a breed, they have no equals in 
the production of large amounts of milk of medium 
grade, so far as butter fat is concerned. It is by 
' irtue of this ability to produce a great quantity of 
milk in a given time that the Holsteins have ac¬ 
quired all records, even to that of butter produc¬ 
tion. It is the contention of Holstein breeders that 
by reason of this smaller amount of butter fat and 
its existence in a finer state of subdivision, more 
intimately mixed with the fluids, Holstein milk is 
superior to richer milk as a human food, particularly 
for babies and young children. There is doubtless 
something in this contention, and it has even been 
found that some individuals of breeds noted for 
their high production of butter fat produce milk 
too rich for their own young. When it comes to 
separating the butter fat from the milk, in the shape 
of cream, and breaking up these globules in the 
VITTINO IN EARLY AT THE MILKING GAME. Fig. 
churn, it must be admitted that some other breeds 
have compensating advantages, however. Nature is 
sometimes lavish in her generosity, but she seldom 
bestows all her favors upon one child. 
As has been said in another connection, farmers 
have a business sense which quickly leads them to 
produce the grade of product for which they can 
obtain the largest margin of profit. If one breed 
of cattle will excel another in the production of a 
marketable commodity, without an offsetting in¬ 
crease in the cost of production, that breed will 
gradually, but surely, supplant the other in those 
districts where that commodity is the chief source 
of income. This is not equivalent to saying that 
Holsteins are superior to all other breeds, for in 
some points others excel them, and for some dairy¬ 
men these other points may bo of paramount im¬ 
portance. It does account, however, for the fact 
in the great milk shipping districts of our country 
the black and white cattle, with their huge frames, 
their immense udders, and their unrivalled capacity 
for turning great quantities of roughage into milk. 
are displacing smaller breeds upon large dairy 
farms and compelling them to find their places upon 
those farms where special conditions give them the 
advantage which their peculiar merits warrant. 
The one great feature in which Holsteins excel is 
as has already been said, the production of milk. 
This capacity for production in some individuals of 
that breed has been phenomenal, and would, indeed, 
be almost unbelievable were it not for undisputed 
official tests. Over 100 pounds of milk per day. for 
a hundred days in succession, were given by one 
Holstein cow tested by the Massachusetts Experi¬ 
ment Station: another cow made over 40 pounds of 
butter in one week. These enormous yields are in¬ 
teresting as showing the possibilities of production, 
but they bear little relation to the results obtained 
in the average dairy under ordinary conditions. 
Good Holstein cows, prc perly fed and cared for, 
should each give from 40 to 50 pounds of milk per 
day, or from 8,000 to 
10.000 pounds in their 
milking year, and this 
milk should contain 
close to 3.5 percent of 
butter fat. Where but¬ 
ter is' made the skim- 
milk is a valuable asset, 
and in the production of 
this Holsteins again ex¬ 
cel, of course. Mature 
Holsteins weigh from 
1,000 to 1,500 pounds 
each, and it is not rea¬ 
sonable to expect that 
they can be fed, and 
their milk (low sus¬ 
tained, on the same ra¬ 
tions that would sup¬ 
port a Jersey or other 
cow of smaller type. 
With the dairymen, 
however, it is not a 
question of how much 
a cow eats, but of how 
economically she con¬ 
verts her food into milk. 
No one questions the 
ability of Holsteins to 
do this to advantage, 
and so, with a good in¬ 
dividual, the more she 
iqo 
eats the better. Dainty 
cows are seldom large 
producers; but the Holsteins are not dainty; 30 to 
40 pounds of silage. 10 to 15 pounds of hay, and S 
to 12 pounds of grain are easily consumed by the 
average Holstein, in full flow of milk, in one day. 
A breeder of Jerseys once said that his only ob¬ 
jection to them was the difficulty lie had in keeping 
the cat from catching the young calves. No such 
objection could hold against the Holsteins; their 
calves are large, big of bone, and usually thrifty. 
They are easily reared, and with reasonable care, 
may be kept growing without a break up to maturity. 
They thrive on skim-milk and quickly become able 
to eat and make good use of grain and roughage. 
Their large size makes them valuable for veal; a 
consideration not to be despised nowadays. It would 
be folly to disparage the other well-known and val¬ 
uable dairy breeds in an attempt to magnify the 
Holsteins. All these breeds have their advantages 
and their place in farm economy. The writer con¬ 
fesses (o an almost overwhelming desire to put a 
beautiful Kerry cow that he recently saw at a State 
fair into his pocket, and to carry her home with 
j 
