DEVON CATTLE. 
13 
but have not been sufficiently exact, as to give in 
quarts and pounds the results of their milk and 
butter products. 
I can repeat what I have frequently stated, and 
know to be true, that the Devons, as a breed of 
neat-cattle, on the whole, are not excelled by any, 
for labor, beef, or dairy, in quantity , or quality , in 
proportion to the food they consume. 
They cross well with our native cattle; better 
than any other of the imported animals, and 
wherever the cross has been tried has almost in¬ 
variably produced good stock. I have been in 
possession of them nearly twenty years, and have 
raised many valuable animals, and with but very 
few exceptions, it is rare to find a poor animal of 
the breed, that has had any chance at keeping. 
I always fed uniformly well, but never extrava¬ 
gantly, in order to produce a great size. One 
cow suckled two calves four months; the calves 
were then fed with roots or mill-feed, and straw, 
until spring, so as not to lose flesh, but not to im¬ 
prove in condition. Straw and roots have general¬ 
ly been my winter forage, and clover their summer 
pasture. 
The oxen are sufficiently large for labor, and 
will weigh from 1,000 to 1,500 lbs., grass fed. 
They are very active, docile, and easily made trac¬ 
table; are remarkably good travellers, hardy, and 
easily kept. The cows will weigh from 600 to 
800 pounds, grass fed, and give a fair quantity of 
very rich milk. Their beef is excellent, being 
very fine, and well mixed with fat and lean, sur¬ 
passing any other breed in that respect. They 
fatten quick, and always prove well when slaugh¬ 
tered. 
The bulls, generally, are smaller than the oxen, 
and inferior in beauty, but the proof of a good sire 
is the value of his stock; and there are no other 
cattle which will so generally give the color, 
sprightliness, and general features of the breed to 
their offspring, like the Devon bulls. 
Mr. J. A. Frost of Rochester, who perhaps has 
bought and slaughtered for the past 20 years, 
more cattle than any other man in western New 
York, gives it as his opinion, that the Devons are 
the most valuable cattle in this country for beef. 
I am glad to learn that you have resolved to let 
the public know their true value; but you must 
be careful not to over-rate them, or it will produce 
a reaction. When we state facts relative to any 
particular variety of stock, we should mention the 
poor, and the middling, as well as the good ones, 
for extraordinary animals are rare in all breeds. 
One very valuable trait in the Devons, is their 
general uniformity. There is one striking fact 
which is well known in this section ; that wherev¬ 
er there are any Devons to be found, the eastern 
buyers are certain to pick them up as soon as the 
owners will part with them. 
Yours most sincerely, 
WILLIAM GaRBUTT. 
From all this evidence, it will be seen that the 
Devons are distinguished as a highly valuable 
race of cattle; that on light and medium soils, 
where laboring oxen are required, and an active, 
hardy, and deep-colored animal is preferred, they 
are superior to any other breed known. Let me 
t)e distinctly understood. I pretend not to place 
them in competition with the noble and unrivalled 
Short-Horns, as best adapted to the richer soils, 
and more luxuriant pastures of the United States; 
but aside from these, and even there too, they are 
every way a most desirable and beautiful class of an¬ 
imals. I have seen the Devon crossed with vari¬ 
ous other breeds; but the most beautiful and lux¬ 
uriant admixture is that with the Short-Horn. 
This is the only alliance of the latter, with an¬ 
other breed, where the exaltation of the one did 
not seem a degradation of the other. The cross 
is remarkably rich, blending the fine points of both 
in perfect harmony. In a visit made a year or 
two since to John A. King, Esq., of Jamaica, Long 
Island, who inherited the Devons left by his father, 
the late Hon. Rufus King, I saw a beautiful white 
cow, with all the characteristics in shape, and proof, 
even to the clear upturned horn of the Devon, 
whose sire was a Short-Horn bull. Her dam was 
one of Mr. K.’s Devon cows. He stated to me 
that of all cows which he ever kept, none in their 
good qualities, ever equalled the Devons, and their 
descendants from a Short-Horn cross. 
Lemuel Hurlburt, Esq., of Winchester, Ct., who 
has kept the Devons since 1821, which he obtain¬ 
ed of the late Mr. Patterson of Baltimore, asserts 
that the crosses of his bulls with the native cows 
of his neighborhood, have added greatly to their 
value ; and his long experience has satisfied him 
of their great excellence. 
Within my own knowledge, not more than half 
a dozen importations of Devons have been made 
into the United States by different individuals. In 
1817, Messrs. Patterson & Caton of Baltimore, re¬ 
ceived several choice cows, and bulls, from Mr. 
Coke’s herd. Shortly after that time, Mr. Coke 
also sent to Mr. King of Long Island, a bull and 
several cows. 
In 1825, Mr. Henry Thompson, a merchant of Bal¬ 
timore, imported a bull and two cows, very choice 
animals, bred by Mr. Childs of Bewdley, in Devon¬ 
shire. Some of the descendants of this stock were 
afterward owned and bred by George Patterson, 
Esq. 
In 1839'Mr. Francis Rotch of Butternuts, Otsego 
Co., N. Y., imported two Devon heifers from 
England, which are now in that neighborhood. In 
the same year, a Mr. Vernon imported into Genesee 
county, in this state, a bull and two heifers, bred 
by Messrs. Davy of North Molton, Devonshire. 
The heifers, unfortunately, both died about a year 
after their arrival, with the foot-ail, and their only 
descendant is a heifer, now two years old, which, 
together with the bull, are owned in that county. 
Other importations may have been made, but 
they are beyond my knowledge; and although 
this valuable stock is well known add highly ap¬ 
preciated in their native country, where choice an¬ 
imals for breed are now sold at prices ranging from 
30 to 100 guineas, ($150 to $500,) the Ameri¬ 
cans have been slow to estimate their worth. So 
high a character have the Devons achieved in 
England, that at the great shows of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, they are allowed a distinct 
class by themselves, where they take rank side-by- 
side with the other favorite and most celebrated 
