366 DEVON GREENERY 



fruit ; but in 1911 maturity came with a rush. The 

 hops also of 1911 were to be the hops of the century, 

 so rich and ripe, so full of rub and fragrance, yet we 

 gather from several sources that they proved rather 

 disappointing in the brewery. Eminent brewers have 

 declared that they must use sugar and other alien 

 products in order to get into their beer that sunshine 

 in which English malt and hops are deficient, a plaus- 

 ible theory which does not, however, square with results 

 in 1911. 



But cider and beer are not the whole of agriculture ; 

 and after testing an old vintage that had long lain 

 in our host's cellar we sallied out again to look at his 

 live stock. He milked ten cows, Devons of a good 

 class, because the tenants on the estate could obtain 

 the use of a first-class bull at a trifling fee, and he 

 was quite satisfied with the milk-yielding powers of 

 the Devon. Some of the milk he sold locally, the 

 rest was put through the separator. But, despite the 

 separator, the cream was still turned into butter by 

 his wife in the old-fashioned Devonshire way, by 

 beating with the hand instead of by churning. Such 

 a practice does not exactly square with modern ideas 

 about never touching the butter with the hand during 

 any stage in its making ; but the results seemed good 

 enough ; and when the dairymaid possesses the 

 necessary cool hand by which she was selected for 

 her job in the old days, the human dasher need be 

 no less cleanly than the wooden one. However, most 

 people would want to know the dairymaid before they 

 would have much confidence in the butter. The 

 calves were reared on the separated milk, and extra 

 calves were also bought in to utilize it fully. The 

 young stock thus raised, except for the heifers that 

 were drafted into the herd, were grown on and 



