126 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



and not quite lost in our native breeds of Devon and Sussex, 

 and tliose of tlie Welsh mountains and tlie Highlands." 



The middle-horned varieties are fairly good milkers, but are 

 remarkable for the quality rather than for the quantity of their 

 milk, which yields a large proportion of cream and butter. As 

 a general rule, the better the milking properties of cattle, the 

 more are they disposed to internal accumulation of fat ; and it 

 should be understood that excessive accumulation of this kind 

 are the farmer's loss and the butcher's gain. 



It is not difficult to observe that the Devonshire and Sussex 

 races are of the same extraction; so nearly do they resemble 

 each other in colour and length of horn, that if anyone unac- 

 quainted with the distinctive features of those two breeds were 

 shown two animals, one a Devon, the other a Sussex, he would 

 find it difficult to detect any material difference between them, 

 except that the Sussex beast might appear rather the larger or 

 the " taller," from the greater length of leg. A more experienced 

 observer would notice in him a less finely chiselled head, coarser 

 eyelids combined with a less pleasing expression of the eye, and 

 a crescent- shaped, upward horn, instead of the deer-like head 

 and gracefully curved waxy-looking horn of the Devon. In 

 their shape and size, as well as in the curve of the horn and the 

 heavy eye, the Sussex cattle bear a strong resemblance to those 

 formerly bred about Taunton, before the latter were so much 

 mixed with Hundred Gruinea (56) and other North Devon bulls. 



Particular breeds and their varieties were formed long before 

 the modern scientific system of breeding was established. We 

 find that large breeds and bulky varieties of the same are co- 

 extensive with a warm climate and rich herbage, and that 

 smaller breeds and their varieties pervade those districts where 

 the pasturage is more scanty and the climate colder. To wit, 

 we find a larger variety of Devons with long straight hair bred 

 in the fertile vale of Taunton Dene ; while the Devon reared in 

 North Devon is noted for his soft, rich, curly coat of hair, which 

 he frequently loses when taken into other and richer districts. 

 It is well known that the general appearance and hair of the 

 bull Hundred Guinea (56), who was purchased by Messrs. Bult 

 and Bond, near Taunton, of the breeder, at Holland in North 

 Devon, at the foot of the Exmoor hills, altered considerably 



