Oharacter in Old Breeds. 129 



according to activity, muscularity, and fullness and purity 

 of the circulation giving it origin. 



The rounded form of the breed has probably been in- 

 creased by the peculiar tension required in exercise on side 

 hills and steej> surfaces, which are abundant in North 

 Devonshire, where selections of the best forms were made, 

 fiffst by admirers, and afterwards by breeders of means. 

 But the characteristic muscular perfection, activity, and 

 power of transmitting their own color, form, and general 

 qualities, were established by natural agencies long before 

 they became widely known as a breed, or ixiuch distributed. 

 And by their continued activity in a climate necessitating 

 it, they have maintained through ages and centuries their 

 fixed and very strong power of breeding, and marking 

 their descendants, as is conspicuously shown in their rela- 

 tives, the red cattle of New England, and in detached 

 herds and families of Devons, and their grades in nearly 

 or quite all the Northern and Middle States. 



The strongly-fixed reproductive power of the Devons is 

 well demonstrated in the New England red cattle ; as even 

 there their grades reproduce the Devon color and form, 

 and their muscularity also to a considerable extent. The 

 hilly pastures of the Eastern States tend to strengthen and 

 maintain their inherited fullness of muscular growth. 



The Ayrshire Cattle, 



though now a leading dairy breed, are essentially Scotcli 

 Short-horns, or Teeswaters, reduced in size, with greater 

 fixity of character, however. Whoever imported their an- 

 cestry to the damp climate and moist soil of Ayrshire, it 

 was quite a matter of course tliat they should work their 

 way to that location, which gave them its name, as the 

 means of establishing a dairy breed in a humid climate, by 

 their acclimation and successful adaptation to that locality. 

 But few men are named as breeders of Ayrshire cattle 



