CHAPTER Till. 



DEVON BREED OF CATTLE 



By LIEUT. -COLONEL J. T. DAVY, 



LATE EDITOE OF THE " DEVON HERD BOOK." 



HE BREEDS OF CATTLE reared on farms are very 

 numerous, and often approximate one to another by 

 a series of the nicest and almost imperceptible 

 gradations. Where a breed has found a congenial 

 soil and climate, it seems to flourish almost in spite of neglect. 

 The early history of cattle speaks of three kinds, viz., the long- 

 horned, found in the midland counties and in Ireland; the 

 short-horned, in the eastern and northern counties; and the 

 middle-horned, in the western part of England, in Sussex, and 

 in Scotland. 



The Devon breed belongs to the middle-horned variety, is 

 evidently an aboriginal one, and there is little or no doubt that 

 Devon, Hereford, and Sussex cattle, and probably also those of 

 Wales and Scotland, were originally descended from the same 

 stock. They have all the characteristics of the same breed, 

 changed by soil, climate, time, and by being subject to man's 

 will and control. These influences change the capabilities and 

 characteristics of most breeds of animals coming under the 

 denomination of stock. The late Mr. Youatt, in his valuable 

 work on cattle, speaking of the skulls found in different parts 

 of England, says : " There is a fine specimen in the British 

 Museum ; the peculiarity of the horns will be observed resem- 

 bling smaller ones dug up in the mines of Cornwall, and pre- 

 served in some degree in the wild cattle in Chillingham Park, 



