EARLY HISTORY AND TYPICAL BREEDS OF CATTLE. 603 



type will be found, except in Central and South America, where modi- 

 fications of the ancient breed may be long postponed. 



VI. The Devons. 



Among the oldest of the distinct breeds of England, the Devons have 

 always been, as they now are, one of distinguished merit. They belong 

 to the class called Middle-Horns — Irish long-horned cattle, and the Tex- 

 ans furnishing good types of the long-horned breeds, while the old cattle 

 of Durham represent the Short-Horns. The Devons, as known 100 years 

 ago, are thus described by Youatt, whose writings are our best authority 

 on breeds of British cattle : "The north of Devon has been long cele- 

 brated for a breed of cattle beautiful in the highest degree, and, in activ- 

 ity at work and aptitude to fatten, unrivaled. The native country of the 

 Devons, and where they are found in a state of the greatest purity, 

 extends from the river Taw westward, skirting along the Bristol channel ; 

 the breed becoming more mixed, and at length comparatively lost before 

 we arrive at the Parrefet. Inland it extends by Barnstaple, South Mol- 

 ten, and Chunileigh, as far as Tiverton, and thence to Wellington, where 

 again the breed becomes unfrequent, or it is mixed before we reach Taun- 

 ton. More eastward the Somersets and the Welsh mingle with it, or 

 supersede it. To the south there prevails a larger variety, a cross prob- 

 ably of the Devon with the Somerset; and on the westthe Cornish cattle 

 are found, or contaminate the breed. The Devonshire man confines them 

 within a narrow district, and will scarcely allow them to be found with 

 purity beyond his native county. From Portlock to Biddeford, and a 

 little to the north and the south, is, in his mind, the peculiar and only 

 residence of the true Devon. 



"From the earliest records the breed has here remained the same ; or 

 if not quite as perfect as at the present moment, yet altered in no essen- 

 tial point until within the last thirty years. This is not a little surprising 

 when it is rememl)ered that a considerable part of this district is not a 

 breeding country, and that even a proportion, and that not a small one, 

 of Devonshire cattle, are bred out of the county. On the borders of 

 Somerset and Dorset, and partly in both, extending southward from 

 Crewkern, the country assumes the form of an extensive valley, and prin- 

 cipally supplies the Exeter market with calves. Those that are dropped 

 in February and March, are kept until May, and then sold to the drovers, 

 who convey them to Exeter. They are there purchased by the Devon- 

 shire farmers, who keep them for two or three years, when they are sold 

 to the Somersetshire graziers, who fatten them for the London market; 

 so that a portion of the Devons, and of the very finest of the breed, come 

 from Somerset and Dorset." 



