NEAT STOCK. 197 



cannot, and ouglit not to expect them to be free from the imper- 

 fections which attach to poor human nature. 



Youatt, a British authority not to be questioned, in his work 

 on cattle, says : " For the dairy the North Devons must be ac- 

 knowledged to be inferior to several other breeds. The milk 

 is good, and yields more than an average proportion of cream 

 and butter ; but it is deficient in quantity." He furthermore 

 says, " that its property as a milker could not be improved 

 without probable or certain detriment to its grazing qualities." 



But we have still a better test of the estimation in which the 

 Devons are held for dairy purposes-, both on this and the other 

 side of the water. A scale of the points of excellence of dif- 

 ferent breeds of cattle, established years since in England, more 

 recently adopted, with few if any changes, in America, shows 

 the real value which the best judges (who, if prejudiced at all, 

 are prejudiced in their favor,) place upon the Devons and other 

 English breeds, as milch stock. This scale embraces one hun- 

 dred points ; and no animal, of course, attains perfection until 

 it is entitled to the entire hundred. To each part of the ani- 

 mal its real value has been assigned ; as, for instance, a deep, 

 round and faultless chest is entitled to a certain number of 

 points in the hundred — say fifteen ; a faultless head to four, 

 and so on. If the animal is deficient in any part, the number 

 of points at which that part is rated in the scale is to be de- 

 ducted from the hundred, in determining its merits. 



Now the Devon cow is so lightly esteemed for the dairy, both 

 here and at home, that the udder, whose size and shape we are 

 apt so carefully to criticise in a milch cow, is rated in the estab- 

 lished scale as of the value of one point, while the horns and 

 cars are considered worth two points each, and the color of the 

 nose and the expression of the eye have four points assigned to 

 each. In other words, if a perfect cow of the Devon breed, 

 with an udder such as in that breed aifords the best promise 

 of capacity and product, is worth one hundred dollars, another 

 cow of the same blood, equal to her in all other respects, but 

 whose udder is of such a character as to make it certain that 

 she cannot yield a quart of milk in twelve hours, is worth nine- 

 ty-nine dollars. 



It is therefore apparent that the animal, the capacity of whose 

 lacteal glands is considered only of one-quarter part as much 



