SWISS CATTLE. Aside from an occasional importation by curious amateurs, the SAA iss cat tle have never gained a foothold in our country, and yet they bear a high reputation in many parts of Europe. In France, especially, they are much esteemed, and at the agricultural school of Grignon their performances at the pail are said to compare well with those of the com mon short-;_orns, which were considered the best milkers in the establislitnent. An accurate ob server says they are robust, hardy animal,. usu ally of a dun color, or dun and white, with medium heads, hanging dewlaps, rather coarse shoulders, and broad hips and quarter,, with well-developed udders. Removed from their natiN e mountains, they manifested little impa tience at the change, and though kept in stables and soiled, they seemed to thrive, and carried a good coat of flesh; when dry, they are said to fatten readily. In Switzerland they are wintered in the valleys, on the coarsest food, and as soon as the.snow melts from the southern slopes of the mountains are driven to their pastures, which, as the season advances, are gradually changed for the bigher ranges. For four months in the year they are kept on the most elevated feeding grounds, and there, attended by a single man, uniting in his person the offices of cow herd and dairy-man, they feed on the close, sweet herbage, often at the very edge of the snow fields, till their short summer is over, and they are driven by the autumn storins to the more sheltered pastures again. Cheese is the
chief product, and its manufacture is conducted in the lonely chalet, perched on the mountain side, in the most primitive manner. A few pails and tubs and an iron kettle are the only utensils required. The best cows yield from ten to twenty quarts of milk daily, and each cow pro duces, by the end of the season of four months, on an average, 225 pounds of cheese. The best cheeses are made upon pastures 3,000 feet above the sea level! How far the introduction of these cattle into our country might be of advan tage is a question; but there are districts which, though not absolutely alpine in their character, are sufficiently rugged and bleak to require for their profitable occupation a breed of this kind, especially as with. better keeping and a milder climate they proportionably improve in both milk and form.