476 [A68KMIU.Y 



climated and habituated to the changes of air, water, feed and 

 care, than the more delicate, thin-skinned Dui-hams, and at the 

 same time have possessed properties as mill^ers fully equal to the 

 latter, as fatteners very little inferior and as working cattle far 

 superior. The English Devon are considered by all the best 

 workers in England, and, when crossed by the Durham, equal to 

 these in quantity of milk and far superior in quality. Tliese cir- 

 cumstances, with others, show clearly an identity of race in the 

 English and American Devons. I have known and heard from 

 most unquestionable sources of cows, in by-gone years, coming 

 from the common herds of our country, some of the most ungaiu 

 appearance, almost unsightly, giving no indications of the milker 

 except in bag and milk vessels, when well fed and cared for about 

 the time of calving and after, giving from twenty-two to twenty- 

 six quarts of rich milk a day. I have also known to come from 

 such herds cows possessing symmetry of form and other indica- 

 tions of good milkers, to yield with good treatment from twenty - 

 nine to thirty quiirts a day, the season, of rich milk. These cows, 

 it is believed, had not a drop of Durham blood in them, nor any 

 means of acquiring it. The owner knew nothing about the rac^ 

 they sprung from nor cared ; t;\ey knew their cows gave them 

 large quantities of good rich milk ; and they tried to have as 

 manj' calves from them as they could, by crosses from the best 

 breeds in their own and neighboring herds. The famous Cramp 

 cow of Englard mentioned, it is believed, had not a drop of Dur- 

 ham blood i^ her. 8h'^ was nurely of the Sussex b^-eed, ind theso 

 were never considered great milkers, only fair workers and fat- 

 teners. In 1808, her best year, this extraordinary cow produced 

 5,872 quarts of milk and 675 lbs. of butter. These, it is said, 

 are all exceptions to the general rule, and, according to the maxim 

 applied on such occasions, prove or strengthen (he rule. It is fair, 

 perhaps, to apply the rule to England, where the exceptions, as 

 far as we know, are very few : but in the present case with us, 

 where they are so numerous as to make it a doubt whether they 

 are exceptions, we should be less rigid in its application. Where 

 there is a doubt let our country have the benefit of it. If we had 

 began some years ago, as they did in Great Britain, to refine and 

 pui'ify our best breeds by repeated crosses with each other, we 

 might have had a race now more perfect, perhaps, than the im- 



