108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The want of reliable and accurate experiments in agriculture 

 is now very generally felt, and it has been the desire of the 

 Board to have such conveniences as would enable them to 

 conduct a series of experiments in such a manner as to secure 



in the Devon is always red. Formerly a rich blood-red was the favorite color, 

 and a test of purity ; and now a somewhat lighter color is in vogue, approach- 

 ing rather nearer to that of the South Devon, which is a larger, coarser, stronger 

 animal. In all cases the color grows lighter round the muzzle, while a dark 

 mahogany color, verging almost to a black, and growing yet darker about the 

 head, always was a very questionable color for a true Xorth Devon, more 

 especially when accompanied by a dark nose, 1 



The Hair should be short, thick, and fine ; and if showing on its surface a 

 fine curl, or ripple, it looks richer in color, and is supposed to indicate a hardier 

 and more thrifty aiumal, .......... 1 



The Udder should be such as will aiford the best promise of capacity and 

 product, 1 



The Carriage — The Devons having, from their excellence in the yoke, another 

 destiny besides that of the butcher's block, it is all important that the animal's 

 carriage should indicate as much ; but to obtain this, something of the heavy, 

 inert, squarely moulded frame of the merely beefing animal must be relin- 

 quished for a lighter and more active frame, ....... 3 



Quality — On this the thriftiness, the feeding properties, and the value of the 

 animal depends ; and upon the touch of this quality rests, in a good measure, 

 the grazier's and the butcher's judgment. If the "touch" be good, some 

 deficiency of form may be excused ; but if it be hard and stiff, nothing can 

 compensate for so unpromising a feature. In raising the skin from the body, 

 between th3 thumb and the finger, it should have a soft, flexible and substantial 

 feel, and when beneath the out- spread hand, it should move easily with it, and 

 tinder it as though resting on a soft, elastic, cellular substance; which, how- 

 ever, becomes firmer as the animal " ripens." A thin papery skin is objection- 

 able, more especially in a cold climate, 15 



100 

 Points of the Devon Bull. 



As regards the male animal, it is only necessary to remark, that the points 

 desirable in the female are generally so in the male, but must, of course, be at- 

 tended by that masculine character which is inseparable from a strong, vigorous 

 constitution. Even a certain degree of coarseness is admissible, but then it must 

 be so exclusively of a masculine description as never to be discovered in the females 

 of his get. 



In contra-distinction to the cows, the head of the bull may be shorter, the 

 frontal-bone broader, and the occipital flat and stronger, that it may receive and 

 sustain the horn— and this latter may be excused if a little heavy at the base, so its 

 upward form, its quality and color, be right. Neither is the looseness of the skin, 

 attached to, and depending from the under jaw, to be deemed other than a feature 

 of the sex, provided it is not extended beyond the bone, but leaves the gullet'pnd 

 throat clean and free from dewlap. 



The upper portion of the neck should be full and muscular, for it is an indication 



