52 Devon Cattle. 



and in their third summer they are fed off on grass without any 

 artificial food, unless in a bad season. They thus go out fat on 

 an average from two-and-a-half to three- and-a-half years old. 



In some cases they are fed off earlier than this, and may be 

 killed at two years. The Devon bullock is almost always fed 

 in the summer, though occasionally stall-feeding is adopted. 

 Many are sold in a store condition to farmers in Dorset, Herts, 

 Wilts, Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire, Warwickshire, Hants, and 

 other counties. 



A well-grazed Devon bullock, when well fed, should easily 

 attain to a live weight of 12 cwt ; of course, show cattle 

 weigh considerably more. To take an example, the weight of 

 the champion Devon at Smithfield show in December, 1912, 

 was 17 cwt. qrs. 2 lbs., at two years nine months and three 

 weeks {Captain, bred by His Majesty the King). This, how- 

 ever, has been exceeded in old times when bullocks were 

 kept till five or six and then fed off. Most people unacquainted 

 with the breed think that it is a beef breed pure and simple, 

 and that its milking qualities are nil. The Devon breeder 

 claims that it is the best lieef breed, and he also claims that the 

 Devon cow can hold her own with a great many cows of a 

 milking breed, at the pail. Where the practice of suckling 

 calves on to a cow is followed it will be readily understood 

 that the milking qualities are not brought into such evidence 

 as when a cow is milked. By careful selection and by breeding 

 from the right cows, however, the Devons can be transformed 

 into very capable dairy cattle. A cow belonging to Mr. W. 

 Kidner, of Kingston, gave 1,100 gallons in eleven months. 

 The milk given is of the highest quality, and cases of cows 

 yielding two pounds of butter per day are recorded. 



The Devon breed in their original strongholds have been 

 largely kept from time immemorial by " tenant farmers," thus 

 clearly proving that they are a good " rent paying " breed, 

 especially in cold and hilly districts, where more bulky animals 

 would fare badly ; but when kept on rich land they respond 

 very rapidly, and experience has proved that they will flourish 

 anywhere when properly treated. It is to be hoped that, with 

 the visit of the Royal Show to Bristol, the Devon breeder will 

 rise to the occasion and exhibit to the outside pul^lic the high 

 qualities of his favourite " Rubies." 



S. Kidner, 



Bickley. 



Milverton, Somerset. 



