438 
Management of Cattle. 
mense consumers, and will devour, when first put to turnips, 
5 or 6 bushels daily besides artificial food. 
For certain districts the Devons must be considered most 
valuable animals, being hardy and easily kept, upon poor soils, 
in the driest summer and upon the most scanty herbage. Their 
rich milk and fine quality of flesh, combined with their unrivalled 
working qualities, are becoming more appreciated than formerly, 
and they are gradually increasing in importance amongst our 
native breeds. 
Having now described the three breeds of cattle countenanced 
by the Society, I shall briefly notice a few others which still exist 
in different districts of the kingdom to which they are almost 
peculiar. Amongst these may be mentioned the Sussex cattle, 
which are seldom seen except in their native or the closely adjacent 
counties. They are very large animals when fully grown. There 
are a few good herds of them in Sussex which have had no 
cross of blood for 100 years. The cows are not good milkers, 
nor do the best breeders tliink much of the dairy, strong constitu- 
tion for work, with an aptitude to fatten afterwards, being the 
points principally attended to. 
The general rule is to wean the calves at about four months 
old, after which they are frec^uently very badly kept for the first 
few years. Most of the steer-calves are brought up for work and 
are broken in at two and a half years old, and worked till seven ; 
they are then turned off to fatten, and make very fine oxen at 
Christmas, weighing from 70 to 80 stone. Oxen are very much 
used in Sussex for agricultural purposes, and with the exception 
of the Devons they are, perhaps, better adapted for it than most 
other breeds. They will not, however, fatten at an early age, 
and hence the reason they are now so rarely met with. 
In some of the dairy districts of Leicestershire, but more par- 
ticularly in Warwickshire, the Long- horn cattle are still to be 
found. In the days of Bakewell they were more in repute than 
at present, being taken up by that eminent sheep-breeder, and he 
had, at one time, some very good animals of the sort. The Long- 
horns are extremely hardy cattle, capable not only of enduring 
exposure to inclement weather, but thriving upon poor cold grass- 
land, better than many other descriptions. They are very much 
in favour in the Warwickshire cheese dairies, and their milk is 
said to abound in curd much more than in butter. Certain it is 
that the cheese made in those districts is remarkably good, and 
the butter quite the reverse. The cows are invariably bulled, so 
as to calve in early spring, and thus afford the longest time for 
cheesemaklng upon the pasture land. The calves are taken away 
almost immediately, the steers frequently sold, or if kept, reared 
at as little expense as possible. 
