This is a new breed, and its reputation is mainly of a local character.
But it is not without its representatives in most of the Northern and
Northwestern States, and its fame has traveled quite extensively,
considering the quiet and unpretentious manner in which it was
originated and has been bred. In some particulars it is the most
uniform of the breeds, even more uniform than the Devon. Especially is
this true of the quality of the milk, which is as uniform throughout
the herd as if it were drawn from a single cow, the quality varying,
where the keep is the same, only with the age of the cow, and the lapse
of time since calving. The yield of milk, though not excessive, is
large and very rich--almost equal to that of the Jersey and Guernsey,
and quite equal to that of the Devon. It churns easily, and the butter
completely separates from the buttermilk, rendering a second churning
of no avail. Three hundred pounds per cow a year of high-colored
and fine-flavored butter is a fair average for a herd. Few, even of
selected herds, of other animals equal this. We are not aware of
phenomenal milkers among the Holderness cattle, unless all can be
called such, their chief characteristic being uniformity. They breed,
it may be said, perfectly true to type, so that all are excellent.
The reason for this uniformity is plain, and is found in the origin
of the breed in the closest possible inbreeding for thirty years.
They originated from a cow with calf which was bought by Mr. Truman
A. Cole, of Solsville, N.Y., of a drover who had just purchased it at
auction in Knoxboro, N.Y., where a herd of pure-bloods, because of
the death of the owner, had been sold under the auctioneer's hammer.
The cow dropped a bull calf, which was bred to its mother, then to
both mother and sister; and this system of close inbreeding, even sire
to daughter, as well as brother to sister, has been continued down
to the present time, or for thirty years, as before stated. This has
fixed and intensified the qualities, and at the same time secured the
greatest possible uniformity and really established a breed, separate
and distinct from all others. This is the way in which all the valuable
breeds have been established, and this is the first persistent and
successful effort at establishing a purely American breed that has ever
been made. While carefully watching results and selecting for breeding
purposes, Mr. Cole has steadily refused to be turned from his course,
or to change his purpose of establishing a uniform butter breed, and of
testing the fallacy of the popular notion about the injurious effects
of inbreeding. His thirty years of the closest inbreeding have shown
no such disastrous effects, but, on the contrary, have produced only
good ones. There is no failure in form or constitution. The only marked
external change, save in securing the greatest uniformity, has been in
the gradual change of color. The original animals were pale red and
white, the white being along the back from the shoulders to the tail,
down the hind-quarters, and along the belly to the shoulders. This
distribution of the light and dark colors has remained essentially the
same, but the light red gradually turned to dark red, then to brindle
and finally to black. The later bred animals are all black and white.
But the calves, when first dropped, are still red and white, the red
changing to black when the first coat of hair is shed. This is probably
one of the most remarkable cases of inbreeding on record, as the breed
is also one of the most remarkable. All who have tried this stock are
remarkably well pleased with it, and calves readily sell for $100
a head with a demand greater than the supply--and this without any
newspaper advertising. The breed is endorsed by Mr. Lewis F. Allen,
former editor of the Shorthorn Herd-Book, and author of a work on
cattle that stands second to none as authority. This endorsement has
appeared in print over Mr. Allen's signature, as have the favorable
opinions of many other good judges. In the latest edition of his book
on the Cattle of America, he says:
"I never saw a more uniform herd of cows, in their general
appearance and excellence, which latter quality they daily prove
in the milk they produce. * * Compared with ordinary dairy herds,
the uniformity in yield testifies to their purity of breeding and
management."
[Illustration: American Holderness Bull, LEWIS F. ALLEN, at 16 months.