TOUATT'S OPINION. — A FAIR TEST. 47 



objection to her as a dairy cow, since it is generally 

 thought that the peculiarity of form which disposes an* 

 animal to take on fat is somewhat incompatible with 

 good milking qualities, and hence Youatt says : " For 

 the dairy the North Devons must be acknowledged to be 

 inferior to several other breeds. The milk is good, and 

 yields more than the average proportion of cream and 

 butter ; but it is deficient in quantity." He also main- 

 tains that its property as a milker could not be im- 

 proved without probable or certain detriment to its 

 grazing qualities. 



But the fairest test of its fitness for the dairy is to be 

 found in the estimation in which distinguished Devon 

 breeders themselves have held it in this respect. A 

 scale of points of excellence in this breed Avas estab- 

 lished, some time ago, by the best judges in England ; 

 and it has since been adopted, with but slight changes, in 

 this country. These judges, naturally prejudiced in 

 favor of the breed, if prejudiced at all, made this scale 

 to embrace one hundred points, no animal to be re- 

 garded as perfect unless it excelled in all of them. 

 Each part of the body was assigned its real value 

 in the scale : a faultless head, for instance, was esti- 

 mated at four ; a deep, round chest, at fifteen, &c. 

 If the animal was defective in any part, the number of 

 points which represented the value of that part in the 

 scale was to be deducted pro rata from the hundred, in 

 determining its merits. But in this scale the cow is so 

 lightly esteemed for the dairy, that the udder, the size 

 and shape of which is of the utmost consequence in 

 determining the capacity of the milch cow, is set dowm 

 as worth only one point, while, in the same scale, the 

 horns and ears are valued at two points each, and the 

 color of the nose, and the expression of the eye, are 

 valued at four points each. Supposing, therefore, that 



