THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



25 



Mr. Wainwright is a ycung man, and his career as a breeder 

 goes uo further back thau teu years; but he has made the 

 best use of his time, and achieved very flattering success. 

 During these ten years he has exhibited eighty head of stock 

 in competition for prizes at our national and State agricultural 

 shows, and at those of the American Institute. For these 

 animals he has taken no less thau fij'ly-three premiums — the 

 best possible test of the excellence of his stock and his judg- 

 ment in their management. 



In adopting the Devons to breed, Mr. Wainwright has 

 argued tliat in this country there is a very large proportion of 

 land — much of it of a hilly nature, especially in the older 

 States— that yields but a scanty pasturage. The Devons in 

 such pastures in England are found to be good rent-paying 

 animals, furnishing good milk and beef, and first-rate working 

 cattle. The beef is of a fine quality, and brings a high price 

 in the markets. They withstand extremes of temperature. 

 On a poor pasture they, from their peculiar build, are enabled 

 to travel rapidly over the ground without fatigue, and get suffi- 

 cient nourishment, where a heavy Shorthorn or Hereford 

 would starve. The breed will average of a better quality and 

 more even than Shorthorns, although the best Devons are not 

 equal in weight to the beat Shorthorns. The very best of this 

 splendid breed are the best in the world ; but below this sum- 

 mit of excellence we find them varying very much, going from 

 all grades of quality down to the very poorest. Devons being 

 an elder-established breed, possess general constitutional cha- 

 racteristics that render them less liable to deterioration than 

 an artificial breed like the Durhams ; and hence we find, as 

 we above remarked, that the herds of Devons, here and else- 

 where, will average of better quality than perhaps any other 

 breed. 



As an evidence of this uniformity, we may mention that it 

 is only within the last fifty or sixty years that systematic at- 

 tempts at improving the breed have been made; for from the 

 earliest records the stock has been nearly or quite the same as 

 it is at the present time, the types having been perfectly fixed, 

 and so excellent that it was thought impossible to improve 

 theoi. In time, however, the demand for Devons from other 

 counties withdrew the best specimens from their native dis- 

 trict, and if it had not been for the efforts of Mr. Francis 

 Q,uartly, of Molland, the breed might have become sensibly 

 deteriorated. He, perceiving this continual export of the best 

 animals, determined to make such selections of those remaining 

 as would enable him to preserve, and perhaps elevate the 

 standard of his native county. His efforts were crowned with 

 the most gratifying results. By skilful breeding and careful 

 selection he produced a herd of Devons wonderfully superior 

 to any in the country, and his stock is at this day considered 

 the standard of excellence. About the year 1831, cattle shows 

 began at Exeter, and in 1835, Mr. Quartly's stock entered in 

 • the twelve classes, swept the field, and gained the twelve prizes. 

 In 1850, at the Royal Society's Show at Exeter, ten prizes 

 were offered ; seven of these were awarded to the sons of Mr. 

 Quartly, and two to animals bred by them, but exhibited by 

 other persons, leaving but one prize to breeders of other strains. 

 Mr, George Turner, of Barton, near Exeter, deriving his stock 

 from the Uuartlys, Davy, and Merson, has achieved a complete 

 success, and now ranks as one of the best breeders in the 

 Kingdom. At the Royal Society's Show at Chester he gained 

 three of the prizes, and several " high commendations" in the 

 different classes ; and at the Bath and West of England Show, 

 held at Barnstaple on the Ist of June in this year, he and his 

 stock very nearly swept the field. 



When, therefore, we know that Mr. Wainwright studied 

 the art of breeding on the farm and under the immediate 

 tuition of Mr. George Turner, and of him procured bis original 

 stock to commeace the herd at The Meadows, we naturally ex- 

 pect that on the banks of the Hudson we shall ultimately tee 

 as fine a herd of Devons as are to be found on the banks of the 

 Taw. If Turner, with Quartly's stock, has at times gained 

 the prize over Cluartly, why, with Quartly and Turner stock, 

 aud Turner's teaching, should not Wainwright turn the tables 

 on Turner, and improve upon him ? We think there are evi- 

 dences at Rhinebeck that he will. We saw Turner's stock at 

 Chester last year, and think them inferior, especially in the 

 rump, to some that Mr. Wainwright has produced. Turner's 

 three-year-old bull. The Zouave, was exhibited by Prince 

 Albert, and gained the second prize ; but he would not com- 

 pare in quality, beauty, or general symmetry withHoricon; 

 and Prince Leopold, Turner's eight months' calf, that took the 



first prize in his class, was not so good an animal in every re- 

 spect as Sachem. In fact, so convinced has Mr. Wainwright 

 been of the merit of his own herd, that he has made scarcely 

 any importations of late, the last, Omar Pacha and the heifer 

 Daisy (640), having been brought over in 1855. Omar Pacha 

 was purchased as the winner of the first prize of the Royal 

 Society (which is the same as saying he was the best bull in 

 England), at Carlisle, in 1855. He stands in the same stable 

 as Horicon, so a fair opportunity is afforded for comparison. 

 Now, Horicon was bred by Wainwright, his sire being May 

 Boy — a Turner bull imported in 1851, and bred by the Duke 

 of York, that won royal first prizes as a yearling, aud afterwards 

 as an aged bull ; unless something has been produced in Eng- 

 land to beat Omar, Horicon, if exhibited at the Royal Show 

 this year, would take the first prize, for he is a much superior 

 animal in quality, weight, and head. Noe is the daughter of 

 Helena, a cow bred by a widow lady, by her sold to James 

 Quartly, and purchased of him by Turner for Wainwiight in 

 1848, when he commenced his herd. She was so regular a 

 breeder, of such good quality herself, and her calves reproduced 

 so exactly her good points, that Mr. Wainwright determined 

 to found a family, and has now got to the seventeenth of the 

 name. They are distinguished for their quality and the ex- 

 cellence of their hind-quarters. Devons generally fail in the 

 rump, and even between the best animals of other blood in 

 this herd and the Helenas, there is such a difference to be ob- 

 served that it is not difficult to select the latter, even with a 

 cursory examination. The old cow gave twenty-two quarts of 

 milk, and Helena 3rd, at four years of age, gave ten quarts per 

 diem, beside what the calf took. As a three-year-old, she 

 raised two calves at the same time. This is rather more than 

 can be said of Herefords or Shorthorns, for it sometimes hap- 

 pens that three or four cows are appropriated to one lusty 

 calf. Horicon, taking the good points of his sire, Megunti- 

 cook, has in addition some of the Helena quality, and the rump 

 for which they are chiefly distinguished. 



CARE OF STOCK. 



In Devonshire the calf is permitted to suck three times 

 every day for a week. It is then used to the finger ; and 

 warm new milk is given it for three weeks longer. For 

 two months afterwards it has plenty of warm scalded milk, 

 mixed with a little finely-powdered linseed cake. Its 

 morning and evening meals are then gradually lessened ; 

 and when it is four months old, it is quite weaned. 



Mr. Wainwright's practice is different. He allows the 

 calf to suck morning and evening until it is four months 

 old, it never running with the cow. When one month old, 

 a little meal is put in its box, so that it can nibbled at it, 

 and, when weaned, be prepared to eat without losing in 

 flesh. Spring heifer-calves get meal the first winter, and 

 none afterward ; fall-calves for two winters, because they 

 are, of course, so small that they eat but little. They are 

 fed when quite young, so that they may acquire a stout, 

 robust constitution, and have a fair start, after which they 

 thrive well on hay and roots. Bull-calves are of course fed 

 higher, as the object is to get more size than with females. 

 The animals are curried in winter, not only to keep them 

 clean, but, especially with bulls, to make them gentle. 



EARLY IMPORTATIONS. 

 In 1817 Mr. Coke (afterwards Earl of Leicester), of 

 Holkham, England, gave to Mr. Robert Patterson, of 

 Maryland, six Devon heifers, and a yearling bull named 

 Taurus. Three of these heifers were given to Mr. Richard 

 Caton, and the remaining three to Mr. Patterson's father, 

 Robert Patterson, the bull being the joint property of this 

 gentleman and Mr. Caton. In 1835 the herd of Mr. Ro- 

 bert Patterson became the property of his son George, who, 

 wishing to introduce some new blood, wrote to the Earl of 

 Leicester to purchase a bull for him, which was done ; and 

 Anchises was sent over, and used upon the old Taurus 

 stock. The descendants of this cross are now scattered 

 over the whole country, and have done a vast amount of 

 good. The above particulars are contained in a letter by- 

 Mr. G. Patterson to Richard Peters, of Georgia, published 

 in the second volume of Davy's " Devon Herd Book." We 

 saw some of this Patterson stock at Mr. Peters 's place two 

 years since, and thought them very fine animals. Mr. Peters 

 had crossed some Devons with a Brahmin or Hindoo bull, 

 and was of opinion that he would produce a race of animals 



