Holstein Cattle

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. Within the last ten or fifteen years Dutch cattle, now generally called Holsteins (from the name of the country whence the principal importations have latterly been inade,)•have,in the West,grown into great impor tance. There, on the flush prairie pastures, their yield of milk, rich in curd, is most extraordinary. It is undoubtedly true that Dutch cattle were among the first cattle brought to America, for the reason that the Dutch were among the first settlers, and it is quite a supposable case that they would have as likely to have brought their best breeds with them, to New York and New Jersey, as did the French their breeds to Canada, or the English to the New England and the Virginia Colonies. Hence, since the English first settled in Virginia in 1607, and the Dutch in New York in 1614, the pre sumption is evident that they brought the cattle .of their native country with them. Indeed there is a record that cattle were • imported by the Dutch in 1625, and that they were of the Dutch breed is more than probable, since these cattle were noted for milk and labor, the two prime necessities in any new settled country abounding with game. Where this wonderful race of Short horned cattle first became broken up into -the various sub-families, that are now generally recognized is not known, neither would it be interesting to follow. It, however, seems cer tain that within the last three centuries system atic attempts began to be made to breed them with a view to permanent improvement by fixing characteristics, that were specially desired to be perpetuated. It has resulted in fixing a breed of superior excellence as dairy cows, giving extraordinary messes of fairly rich milk. If, besides this, we take into consideration the fact that the Holsteins fatten kindly, when not giving milk, and to heavy weights it is not surprising that they should have become so largely sought after, especially in countries of flush pasturage, where dairying is one of the dominant agricul tural industries. The hair of the Holsteins is short, soft, and fine. The skin is good in tex ture and of moderate thickness, fairly mellow to the touch, and their general form is that of great milking quality. The udder being ex tremely capacious, having great depth and breadth, with prominent milk veins running well forward, and with good sized teats stand. ing well apart. The color should be pure white and black, either banded, pied, mottled, or else spotted• over the body. The fashion, however, of to day, is against mottled and spotted, and in favor of distinctive markings, as shown on pages 484 and 485. The bull and heifer showing the spot peculiarities, and the cow the solid markings. Holsteins, or Dutch cattle, as a distinctive breed of milking cows, were intro duced into the United States early in the present century, but the pure blood was soon lost. Sometime between 1820 and 1825, Mr. Herman Le Roy, 'a merchant of New York, imported some improved Dutch cattle and kept them on his farm near the city. Mr. L. F. Allen describes the 'descendents of these cattle in 1833, as being large, well spread, black and white, and remarkable for their uncommon yield of milk. This herd, however, was eventually scattered, and became mixed with the ordinary stock of the country. The first record of pure bred ani mals, the descendents of which have been kept so, seems to have been the importation of Mr. W. C. Chenery, of Boston. The first in 1852, being a single cow. In 1857, this gentleman made a further importation of a bull and two cows, followed, in 1859, by four other cows. Unfortunately some of the animals were infected with contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and with the exception of a single bull, the entire herd was destroyed. In 1861, Mr. Chenery made another importation of most superior animals, from celebrated milking herds, officially guaranteed by the authorities of North Holland, where they were bought, and the importation and their descendents were recognized as being high class milkers. There has been considerable contro versy, of late years, as to the proper name to be applied to this breed of cattle, and it has been asserted that the Dutch cattle are descendents of cattle originally bred in Holstein. This is prob ably incorrect. In Holstein, (North Holland) however, more care seems to have been taken in breeding and selection. And from the fact that not only the original Chenery stock were brought from North Holland, but the principal importations of late years, the name Holstein has now generally come to be recognized. and undoubtedly for the reason that sagacious Ameri can buyers wisely acknowledged the greater uni formity of these cattle over those of the other strains of Dutch cattle. As giving facts in relation to these cattle, however, we append the conclusion of a letter, or rather elaborate statement, sue ceeding a previous letter, by Prof. Hengeveld, teacher at the Netherland Royal Veterinary Insti tute, Utrecht. This was written to Mr. Charles Mueller, United States Consul, at Amsterdam. Prof. Hengeveld takes exceptions to statements in the Holstein Herd Book, and after citing author ities to show that the Holsteins are descended from certain Dutch cattle, never, we believe, seriously questioned, concludes with much inter esting testimony, valuable as giving very early history,, showing among other matter much val uable information on various sub-families of cat tle of the North of Europe. The extracts are as follows: According to the Allgemeine Deutsche Real Encyclopedia, the origin of Holstein-Schles wig lies buried in obscurity, and Holstein was probably visited by the Cimbri, while, a century after, the Roman Emperor Cusar Tiberius arrived with his army and fleet before the mouth of the Elbe, without, however, setting foot on the Holstein shore. According to Tacitus, it may be stated that the Holstein Baltic coast was inhabited, as far as Mecklenburg and Schleswig, by seven petty German tribes, of whom the Angles and Wejnes have preserved their names down to the present time, while the others have been melted down into that of the Saxons. In the fifth century, the Saxons and Angles united with the Jutes and Friesians, and migrated to England. (This is Low's colonization.) Subse quently the Holstein Saxons, who dwelt to the north of the Elbe, were called by the name of Normans, while the name of Holstein is not mentioned in history before eight hundred years after Christ. In 1128—'64, the Holstein province Uagrien was conquered and converted to Chris tianity, and partly peopled with strange colo nists from Friesland, Holland, and Westphalia. The first Dutch colony in Germany, then called by the general name Thuringia, dates back as far as the year 528. From 801 to 864, St. Anskar, primate of Bremen, Hamburg, Hol stein, etc., himself of Flemish birth, attracted many of his countrymen to those northern regions. Charlemagne also- colonized Flemish peasants in the region adjacent to the shores of the Elbe. That stretch of teeming lowlands east of Bremen to the Baltic wore a Vastly different face in those early days. Marshy and uncultivated, the coast edge of those parts stood exposed to the tender mercies of the sea to such a degree that even a slight breeze would suffice to cause immer sion; while the inhabitants, through intestine wars, demoralized and habituated to strife and broil, evinced but little aptitude for the peaceful pursuits of husbandry. It was then that the attention of Geri-.tun princes was drawn to Hol land, where similarly-situated regions had been brought to a high state of productiveness. The great tide of migration, however, did not set in till the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, from which period the origin of the fine grass-lands along the Elbe and the Weser must be reckoned. From these historical statements, it already appears that, with regard to its fitness as a graz ing and cattle-breeding country, Holstein is of later date than Holland; which fact will appear the more prominent after some account has been given of the ,oldest inhabitants of Holland, and their pursuits. For this purpose I at once direct the attention of the reader to the coming of the Friesians and Batavians. The former were the oldest inhabitants of Holland, and were known as herdsmen, hunters, and fishermen. Their his tory in this country goes as far back as three hun dred years before Christ. The Batavians came the Rhine two hundred years after, or one indred years before Christ; and although they Were likewise herdsmen, they occupied themselves more particularly with hunting and fishing. The lands of the Friesians comprised the whole coun try to the north of the Rhine as far as the shores of the North Sea, to which West and East Fries land belonged, composing the preset Dutch provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, and North Holland, besides the provinces of Utrecht, Overyssel, and a part of Gulderland and South Holland. Of all these provinces, Groningen alone appertained to East Friesland. Tacitus says of the Friesians and Batavians: They owned cattle not exceeding in beauty but in number. He further states, as does also Julius Caesar, that the Friesians and Batavians paid each other in cows, sheep, and goats, and gave likewise to their chil dren, as dowry, oxen adapted to the yoke and plow cattle, and horses. When they were sub dued by the Romans in the first centuries of our era, the conquerors derived much advantage from this wealth in cattle, and imposed upon the Frie,sians an annual tribute, consisting of cow hides and meat, while they chose their most val iant warriors from among the Batavians. The Friesians and Batavians applied themselves to the draining of their marshy lands and their islands; created meadows on the reclaimed soil, while the first protected against inundation by raising hills, breakers, and dikes, of which the traces are every where discernible along the coast throughout West Friesland and Groningen. Something is even known regarding the color of their cattle, namely, that they held those white in religious veneration. It is a very plausible theory that the Friesians, who, at as early a date as three hundred years before Christ, peopled the north of the present Netherlands, • and wrought those alluvial plains of Scandinavian clay into soil fit for the requirement of their cattle, did, in a.aer cen turies, spread themselves in more northerly and easterly directions as far as the Elbe; as we already know they did, in the fifth century, unite with the Jutes and Anglo-Saxons in emigrating to England; in addition to which, we must observe that these were probably East Friesians and not West Friesians. The East Friesians from Oldenburg and the country near the Elbe, both south and north of that river, were com pelled, through the inclemency of those regions, then in their original condition of low, alluvial swamps, inundated at every tide, to desert them. It was owing to these local circumstances that the Romans were prevented from endeavoring to land their army. It can be shown that the inhabitants of this territory were unable to make sure provision for their own wants, because of the robberies and piracies committed by the Normans, dwellers on the west coast of Den mark, people from Holstein and Schleswig, Jutes and Angles. These were by no means peaceful

breeders of cattle, as were the Friesians and Batavians, whose land they constantly plundered and laid waste, burning and ravaging their possessions, massacring the inhabitants, making them pay tribute, penetrating far inland to the mouths of the Rhine and Yssel, and everywhere giving unbridled vent to their ferocity and love of plunder. This was between the eighth and eleventh centuries. Giving due weight to these statements, which, from the nature of the case, must necessarily be brief, it can not be doubted that the cultivation of cattle in the Netherlands existed a long time before such a thing could ever be thought of in Holstein. It is also quite as certain that the colonists from Friesland, Hol land, and Westphalia carried with them their cattle to Holstein. Hence we see that, first, the Dutch race of cattle date from an older descent than those of Holstein, while, probably, second, the Holstein cattle originated from the Friesian breed, and from that of the Dutch and West phalian emigrants. After this colonization, we have our attention directed to another remarkable particular in the history of the Dutch cattle-cul tivation. The Herdbook, unable to maintain the priority of the name Holstein from an earlier his tory of Holland and Holstein, might then, per haps, seek its testimony in a later pe;iod, and the events to which your attention is now called. From the fourteenth on till the eighteenth cen tury a large number of Danish oxen were annually turned for pasture into the grassy meadows of North Holland, formerly West Friesland, and sold at the weekly North Holland cattle-market. The oldest of these cattle-markets is that of the city of Hoorn. This market was already estab lished in 1311, and, in 1389, the Danes and inhab itants of the Eyder were allowed by Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, to hold a weekly market there. In 1605, the Danish cattle-market was removed from Hoorn and transferred to Enkhuyzen, where, in 1624, the number of 1,179 oxen were sold. There was also in Amsterdam a lean cattle market, beginning in the spring, in the month of April, but held at irregular periods, depending upon wind and weather, when cattle were allowed to be conveyed from Denmark and Hol stein hither to graze. These were mostly brought by vessel. These importations of Danish and Holstein cattle into North Holland, to which the, Herdbook might refer, did not consist of heifers, but of lean oxen, which were pastured on the fer tile meadows of the Polders, and afterward sold at the markets of Hoorn, Enkhuyzen, and Ams terdam as fat cattle. As to heifers, either then or now, having been imported from Holstein into Friesland and North Holland for breeding pur poses, no such thing is known. To withhold nothing and to put nothing in a distorted light, we may add that in the middle of the eighteenth century several importations took place into Friesland of Danish cattle, consisting of young calves. This was at the time of the raging of the cattle•plague, which desolating disease carried off thousands of the finest cattle in Friesland and Holland. For the purpose of keeping the cattle trade alive, and to fill the places of those destroyed by the plague, small Danish breeds and German cows of a diminutive size were substituted and crossed with the remaining and recovered natives. They were, says Scheltma, Danish-Holstein and small German cows, of which the greater part were smaller in size than the native race. We also find that one was reduced to the necessity, in ' 1769, of purchasing the needful cattle in the county of Bentheim, in the districts of Oldenburg and Munsterpin Hanover, and other parts of Germany. In the work, Present State of Friesland, it is mentioned, that owing to the cattle-plague, the people were compelled to import from abroad all kinds of small cattle, chiefly Danish. But, what was remarkable, however small and ill-favored these animals might be, when compared with the handsome Friesian horned cattle, as a natural consequence, an improvement of food induced a favorable devel opment of body, and, from the mixture of the two breeds, good and choice milch-kine were attained within two or three generations of the introduction of the foreign blood, uo matter how much the race had in the beginning deteriorated through the process, and, eventually, the type of Danish and German cattle was quite lost. This is, however, more than one hundred years ago. A fair consideration of what has been thus far stated will leave no justification of the Herdbook'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 cattle is pure and unadulterated, and it is at least two thousand years old. I come now to the present time, and the question whether it is tenable 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 a case to giye 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 appro priate, and for it should be substituted that of Friesian cattle, whence all the varieties originated. 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 devel oped, attain larger size, and are of a finer texture. If the intention be to convey a correct under standing 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 an historical one, should be given them. In order to be able to readily classify a group of cattle of great extent, possessing the same chief qualities in form, Strum proposed, so long as fifty years ago,. to give to a group, subject to the same condi tions of soil and climate, a name indicating those conditions, and thus originated the desig nations mountain cattle, highland cattle, and lowland cattle. He also heads each of these divisions by the breed best representing the distinctive feature of its class, as its type. It is under the denomination of 'lowland cattle that he places the different breeds of- cattle of the coast-lands along the North Sea. Schmalz, Pabst, and many subsequent writers, adopt this classification—some with a few modifications; but all find in the physical characteristics of the country to which they are indigenous, the general denomination of the collective group. According to Schmalz's statement, cattle, adopt ing Strum's classification, may be distinguished in the following manner: A. Lowland race.— Primitive cow; Dutch Friesian cow. B. Moun tain race.—Degenerate; quite the contrary of Ai. Swiss cow. C. Middle race.—Highland race; forms the transition frbm A to B; Frankish cow. Schmalz says: To the race A belong the Dutch, as representative, the Friesian, the Olden burg, and chiefly all lowland races, bearing the peculiar characteristics which identify it with the place of its sojourn. This is a purely natural division, and there is not the least arrogance in asserting, what history points out, that the Dutch cattle constitute the type of the oldest, purest, and best breed. All other varieties are of less intrinsic value; they are coarser or smaller, possess less productive qualities,' though of local excellence in their native places. If cattle of the genuine breed are bought, imported else where, and there bred, why is it not called by its native name, and why must an appellation be given to it quite foreign and unknown to it. One hears in Europe of lowland cattle, but purchases of them for the purpose of improving other breeds have, for the last hundred years, been only made in the chief Netherland pro vinces, where the choicest cattle of the lowlands are found. Thus, thousands of Dutch and Friesian cattle are annually sent abroad under the name of Dutch cattle. Finally, I beg to add quotations from Dr. George May, director of the agricultural establishment at Weihen stephan, who visited Holland about ten years ago. The Dutch cattle constitute the type of the properly so-called lowland race, which ex tends throughout Netherlands, Flanders, Nor mandy, Oldenburg, and Denmark. Further on be says: The Oldenburg cattle descend from the Dutch race, and are likewise distinguished as East Friesian cattle, as still partially found in Hanoveriau Friesland. In the adjacent parts of Bremen it is called Bremen cattle. The Holstein and Breitenburg cattle in the Wilster and Hemp ner marshes are equal to them, but with respect to their square build, the Breitenburg cattle are, in their properties, more like the finer Dutch cattle. To return to the Holstein: as milk ing cattle, they are wonderful; as cheese makers they are superior, as butter makers, they do not stand the test so well. In fact Holstein breeders always tell how much milk their cows will give; the Ayrshire men, how much milk, butter, and cheese, their cows will make; the Jersey owners, bow much butter and cream to the quart of milk. To show that the Holstein is not a butter cow the following is deduced from a table published by the London _Agricultural Journal, the results of tests made by Mr. Amersfoordt, of Badhoeve, most competent authority, in the Lake of Haar lem, Holland, who tested the milk of forty-six cows in June, and forty-nine cows in Novem ber, with Prof. Fesser's lactoscope, which is claimed to give a close approximation to the actual fat in milk. In the table made by Mr Amersfoordt, the yield of each cow on the 15th of June and the 24th of November, is given, with the percentage of fat. The average yield of forty-six cows in June, is 13.87 litres, or thirty-one pounds each, and the percentage of fat 5.217. Six of the largest milkers gave 20.2 litres, or forty-six pounds per day, with 5.2 per cent. of fat. On the 26th of November, forty nine cows gave an average of 6.24 litres, of 13.92 lbs., with 6.32 per cent. of fat. The largest per centage of fat was 7.50. If the lactomete• of Dr. Fesser is accurate, this shows that the Holsteins give milk as rich as our native cows, whose milk will yield five per cent. of butter, on flush grass in June, and seven per cent. in November. So, considering the noble milking powers of this breed, and their well known ability as cheese makers, their outcome in butter should be con sidered satisfactory, in consideration of their many valuable qualities, for milk, beef and labor.