Management of Devon Cattle. 
315 
the appointment of a Select Committee of the House of Commons 
to investigate the question, with power to examine witnesses 
engaged in, or otherwise conversant with, the system of trading 
in options or futures. 
William E. Bear. 
MANAGEMENT OF DEVON CATTLE. 
Under three heads are most conveniently classified the various 
systems of managing Devon herds in the counties of Devon, 
Somerset, Dorset and Cornwall, the principal Devon-breeding 
districts of England. Each separate object for which a 
breed is kept must be considered as the “ final cause ” (in the 
philosophic sense of the term) of the system of management 
designed to secure that object. Where we find a plurality of 
objects, we find also a combination of different systems of man- 
agement. 
Practice is best learned from practice, and from its results. 
Speculation and theory are well in their place ; but we must see 
facts, and observe the relations of cause and effect, to get a grasp 
of the true principles of successful practice. For this reason 
the plan here adopted is to briefly consider the different classes 
of objects which the owners of Devons have in view, and then 
to give details of actual management in a few representative 
herds, pointing out, so far as may seem necessary, the reasons 
for variations of practice. We shall thus see how the Devon is 
treated, first, as a beef breed ; secondly, for dairy purposes ; and 
thirdly, for the maintenance of the highest qualities by the pro- 
duction and supply of first-rate pedigree bulls. The third 
section comprises also notes on management for competition in 
the show-yard. 
I. Bred for the Butcher. 
In nearly all the earliest notices of the Devon breed in its 
old headquarters, within an area described by Arthur Young as 
of about 45 miles in length by 22 in breadth, in North Devon 
and the adjoining parts of West Somerset, the Devon is repre- 
sented as excellent for beef and for labour, but not of much use 
for milk. It was then, as it still is, famous for its grazing pro- 
perties, and for the prime quality of the meat, cheaply produced. 
The team oxen, mostly fed off at the age of five or six years, some 
a year earlier, reached, of course, weights to which the Devon is 
