340 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



school of graziers, who sometimes kept them to six or seven 

 years old. At all events they are a very fine breed for beef 

 purposes, their meat being particularly tender, juicy, and fine- 

 grained. They are seldom kept for dairy purposes, being 

 poor milkers ; consequently the calf is nearly always allowed 

 to run with the dam, which accounts for the fact that one 

 seldom sees pure-bred Herefords that are not well grown. 

 The highest price paid for a Hereford was 4,000 guineas for 

 Lord Wilton in 1884. 



Devons. 



The cattle of North Devon can be traced as the peculiar 

 breed of the county from which they take their name from 

 the earliest records. Bradley mentioned the red cattle of 

 Somerset in 1726, and no doubt there were many in Devon- 

 shire. 1 William Marshall states (1805), and he is supported 

 by subsequent writers, that 'they are of the middle horn 

 class', and in his time so nearly resembled the Herefordshire 

 breed in frame, colour, and horn, as not to be distinguishable 

 from them, except in the greater cleanness of the head and 

 fore-quarters, and their smaller size. Yet they could not have 

 had the white faces and throats of the Herefords, as they 

 have always been famous for their uniformity in colour 

 a fine dark red. 2 He also compares them to the cattle of 

 Sussex and the native cattle of Norfolk. 3 The Devons 

 then differed very much in different parts of the county ; 

 those of North Devon taking the lead, being ' nearly what 

 cattle ought to be'. They were, considered as draught 

 animals, the best workers anywhere beyond all comparison, 

 though rather small, for which deficiency they made up in 



1 See above, p. 1 68. 



2 Risdon, Survey (1810), Introd. p. viii. 



3 Rural Economy of West of England, i. 235. Risdon says of Devon- 

 shire : ' As to cattle, no part of the Kingdom is better supplied with beasts 

 of all sorts, whether for profit or pleasure,' those for pleasure being ap- 

 parently wild ones kept in parks. Chappie's Review of Risdon 's Survey, 

 P- 23. 



