DEVONS FOR BEEF. 223 



At page 370, he says: 'The Devoiis were justly designated 

 the elite of the yard.' He further says: 'I coiichide these 

 remarks with the words of a Shorthorn friend who accom- 

 panied me through the Devon classes. He exclaimed, "I am 

 delighted ! I find we Shorthorn men have 3^et much to learn 

 of the true formation of animals ; their beautiful contour, and 

 extreme quantity of flesh, surprise me."' Again Mr. Smith 

 writes: 'As converters of vegetable into animal food — breed 

 against breed — they are found to return as much per acre, or 

 for iceight of food consumed, as any other breed,' He might 

 have added, and are well adapted to live in poor pastures, in 

 exposed situations." 



Mr. Bloomfield, the manager of the late Earl of Leicester's 

 estate, at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, England, has, by careful 

 attention, greatly improved the size and quality of the Devous, 

 and increased their milking properties, so that he obtained a 

 prize for having produced an average annual yield of two 

 hundred pounds of butter per cow, in a dairy of twenty cows, 

 or equal to four pounds per Aveek the year round ; and he 

 ofiered to milk forty pure Devons from his own herd, against 

 an equal number of cows in any one herd, of any breed found 

 in England, without finding a competitor. At the Smithfield 

 show of fat cattle, held at the London market-place, in 1858, 

 the gold medal for the best ox or steer of any breed in the 

 show-yard, was awarded to a Devon, bred and owned by the 

 Earl of Leicester. They are highly esteemed in the Smith- 

 field market, not only for the excellence of the meat, but 

 because its size is more agreeable, on most tables, than the 

 huge jomts of some other breeds. In weight, they are much 

 excelled, but the opinion of the Devon breeder is, that more 

 mexit can be made from them, with a given amount of food, 

 than from any other breed. The quality of the Devon beef is 

 unsurpassed, even rivalling the little black West Highland ox, 

 in the estimation of the London west-end butcher, whose 

 fastidious customers oblige him to kill »one but beef of the 

 finest quality and flavor. In the New York market, the "red 

 oxen of Connecticut" most generally bring the highest price, 

 they being Devon grades. The Devons have the preference of 

 all other breeds for the yoke, being strong, active, and of great 

 endurance ; and are remarkable for docility and good temper. 



