317 
Management of Devon Cattle. 
degrees that the classification of herds is not always easy. In 
considering here the more distinctively beef herds, we must not 
overlook the extent of the connection of many of them with the 
dairy. 
When the calves are weaned the cows usually are milked 
for the supply of the house. The cows go out daily, and in 
winter have a night and morning feed in the stalls, straw and 
roots before calving, and hay and roots after they have calved. 
Under the hand-rearing system, the calves are brought up 
on skim-milk, with roots, hay and a little corn ; or, if the milk 
is wanted for other purposes, gruel is substituted. They are 
turned out for a short time during the first summer ; and the 
rule to “ always keep them growing ” is steadily observed by 
the best managers. When taken into their winter quarters, 
the steers are put together apart from the heifers, and begin to 
experience the luxuries preparatory to early death. The extra 
feeding here begins. There is at this point divergence of the 
systems of practice, some breeders not allowing their steers to go 
out any more, but feeding them off for slaughter at ages varying 
between twenty months and two years ; whilst others run them 
on another year and send them to the butcher at a little before, 
or about, three years old. The time of clearing out is neces- 
sarily dependent in some measure upon local circumstances. 
Where these are favourable, the advantage to the producer would 
seem to be in the earlier clearance, as the increase in value in 
proportion to the cost of keep is greater in the earlier than in 
the later periods of growth. In support of this view, the 
opinion of an authority to whom the writer is indebted for much 
valuable information, and whose practical knowledge is very 
extensive, covering widely separated districts, may be here cited. 
Mr. Edwin F. Maunder, Lord Alington's able agent at Crichel, 
discussing the question, expresses a strong preference for the 
practice of getting the steers out at the early age. 
II. Tee Devon tor the Dairy. 
Doi’setshire, the principal home of the dairy Devon, has long 
possessed herds of red cattle approximating more or less closely 
to the Devon type, and has also from an indefinitely early 
period drawn renovating blood from the herds of North Devon 
and West Somerset. The management, however, has varied 
widely from that of the beef-producing herds in the ancient 
headquarters of the breed. In some parts of Devonshire, too, 
and elsewhere, herds of pure-bred Devons, managed specially for 
dairy purposes, have been long established. 
