CATTLE-BREEDING AND DAIRY FARMING. 



THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



REPORT BY CONSUL-GENERAL MERRITT, OF LONDON. 



THE DEVON. 



The leading physical characteristics of the Devon breed of cattle may 

 be coocisely described as follows : 



The Devons are comparatively short, but thick and heavy for their height ; the car- 

 cass is cylindrical, and the skin has a beautiful touch to the hand. 



Tho color is a pure, rich red, with fine silky hair. 



The horns have a yellowish, waxy appearance, tapering and gracefully curved np- 

 wards and outwards. The head is small and well put on ; the muzzle is very fine. 

 The eye is clear, bright, prominent, and shows a good deal of the white round it. 



The chest is very wide in proportion to the size of the animal. Legs are short, small, 

 and very fine in the bone, and the animal altogether possesses a very neat and beau- 

 tiful symmetry. 



The Devon of all existing cattle breeds can lay claim to be one which 

 had the greatest reputation for grazing character a century ago, when 

 the Shorthorn, the modern Hereford, the Bed Poll, and others had no 

 existence. This is why that breed always stands first in the catalogues 

 of the Srnithfield Club and the Bath and West of England Society. The 

 latter was formed in 1777, and the former before the last century closed, 

 when the North Devon was the breed par excellence for small bones, 

 and high quality, just as BakewelFs new Dishley breed was among the 

 sheep tribes. 



The history of the Devon can be traced back until lost in obscurity, 

 and Youatt no doubt rightly deems it to be one of the best existing 

 representatives of the original British breed of cattle. In modern times 

 Shorthorns and Herefords have become more popular with rent-paying 

 farmers throughout the Kingdom, generally because they get the larger 

 size and feed to much greater weights. Still they have failed to sup- 

 plant it in different parts of England, comprising Devon, their native 

 county, parts of Somerset, Cornwall, Dorset, and Hants. In the two 

 last-mentioned counties, where bites of grass are often short, they are 

 better adapted for dairy herds than the Shorthorn, and probably its 

 popularity with rent-paying farmers in the fertile vales of West Somer- 

 set is greatly enhanced by the possession of a variety termed the Somer- 

 set Devon, which, although not of quite such high quality as the true 

 North Devon, appear to answer the combined purpose of dairying and 

 grazing far better. As a dairy animal the Devon has always been cele- 

 brated, not so much for large quantities as for the rich quality of the 

 mttk. At the London Dairy Show for 1883, a Devon cow belonging to 



57 



