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DEVON BREED OF CATTLE. 129 



heavy Shorthorn or Hereford would starve. The very best 

 of this breed are the best in the world." Mr. Steinmetz, 

 of Pennsylvania, writes me, as Editor of the " Devon Herd 

 Book": "I find North Devon cattle the most profitable breed 

 in America ; I can raise more valuable beef on them with the 

 same amount of food than any other breed." 



In reply to some inquiries made in 1883, a well-known Devon 

 breeder writes : " My herd consists now of 130 Devons. We 

 always calculate a cow capable of making from 3|cwt. to 5cwt. of 

 best cheese per season. I don't profess to say that the Devons 

 are a milking breed, but I do say that the milk is rich, and that 

 you can make as much per acre from the Devon as from any 

 other mixed breed or Shorthorn, and they are more hardy. I 

 have just tested our day's milking of forty of my Devons, which 

 gave forty-seven gallons of milk, which made 61|lb. of whole milk 

 cheese. My neighbours forty cross-bred cows gave sixty-one 

 gallons of milk, and that produced only 56|lb. of whole milk 

 cheese. The keep was similar. I make butter for the London 

 market up to May, I then begin making whole milk cheese. I 

 think many farmers are beginning to see that they can make 

 more per acre from the Devon at less cost and care, as in many 

 cases they are going in for Devons as the most suitable and 

 paying. From our altered point of view, the high price of meat 

 shows them to be the most saleable animals, and the quickest 

 feeders. 



What is meant by a gold medal beast at our shows ? That 

 animal which most nearly approaches to the form and quality 

 of North Devon; it is the length, depth, and width, not the 

 height of a beast, which constitutes size. The cry has been for 

 the animal that will be the first ready for the butcher, and the 

 Devons have answered it. They bear the change of soil and 

 climate well, thrive where many breeds would starve, and rapidly 

 outstrip most others when they have plenty of good pastures. 

 That they are a good rent-paying breed, especially in cold, hilly 

 districts, is clearly proved by the fact that the majority of the 

 oldest and most successful breeders are tenant farmers, whose 

 ancestors have kept them for the last 150 or 200 years, in most 

 cases on the same farms, in North Devon and West Somerset, 

 frequently at an elevation of 600ft. or 800ft. above the sea level. 



