360 DEVON GREENERY 



the question. As might be expected, basic slag had 

 proved a most valuable manure on this land, and its 

 effects were visible in the condition of the permanent 

 pastures; but again basic slag gave its best results 

 where the grassland also received good dressings of 

 farmyard manure. 



Our host, as usual in this part of the country, was 

 chiefly a stock farmer ; he kept 20 cows in profit, 

 selling the milk into Plymouth, and he bought in his 

 dairy cows, mostly South Hams and Shorthorn crosses 

 of no particular breeding as long as they showed a 

 promise of milk. But he reared Devons and could 

 fatten them out on the grass with a little assistance. 

 In the valleys about Tavistock are some real fattening 

 pastures that will finish stock ; but it is only a limited 

 area on which this can be done, and the hill farmers 

 live by selling stores. The Devon breed of pure red 

 cattle are well known in the show-ring, but have not 

 established themselves to any great extent outside 

 their native district. Belonging to the same funda- 

 mental red stock as the Herefords and Sussex cattle, 

 the race that is not improbably supposed to have come 

 with the Saxons, they are essentially graziers' beasts, 

 to be fattened on the rich pastures in the summer 

 rather than on cake and turnips in the yards. Hardy 

 and active, they differ but little from the Sussex, 

 except in their lighter frames ; indeed the older type 

 of Devon was the smallest of the true beef breeds. 

 Locally they have some reputation as milkers, but 

 they have never been really bred for this purpose. 

 Sheep were important, the flock consisting of South 

 Ham or South Devon ewes, while Dartmoor sheep 

 were often bought off the hills to be crossed with a 

 Hampshire Down ram for the production of early 

 lambs. An outsider finds some difficulty in sorting 



