30 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
pletely fitted the ground for sowing and planting. I sowed acres 
with oats, 4 with peas, planted 5 acres with corn and one with pota¬ 
toes. My crops were the best in the neighborhood, especially the 
peas and corn. In the fall I prepared the whole for wheat, the oat 
ground by two ploughings, (harrowing in place of the first would 
have been better,) the residue by one; found the pea and corn 
ground finely pulverized and clean, and sowed it, some as late as 
the 10th October. 
In the course of the summer I had prepared a naked fallow of 16 
acres adjoining the above, which was in the best possible state, be¬ 
ing ploughed to the depth of eight inches, and sowed it before the 
other. In the autumn and spring the wheat on the 16 acres had 
the most promising appearance; but as the season advanced, that 
on the pea ground had the superiority. At harvest the result was 
as follows: The wheat on the pea ground was too stout, as much of 
it was down and had to be reaped. That on the corn ground filled 
the best of any, and was very handsome ; I think it yielded more 
than 25 bushels per acre. The naked fallow was the next best, and 
the oat and potato ground produced the poorest crop, but this was 
owing principally to a considerable part of the ground being too 
wet. 
If farmers on stiff soil would draw all their manure to their corn 
and potato grounds in the fall, and then plough deep for their spring 
crops, and sow wheat after crops of peas, barley and corn, I most 
fully believe that their fields would be as clean, and their crops as 
good, as if sowed on naked fallows; if so, their spring crops would 
be clear gain. ONTARIO. 
Cattle Husbandry. 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 
Of these there are many varieties or mixtures, of which the Devon, the Here¬ 
ford and the Sussex cattle are most noted. Of these, the Devon only are 
found in any numbers among us. We shall therefore proceed to quote, from 
the Farmers’ Series of the library of Useful Knowledge, a description of 
Devon cattle. 
the Devon bull —(A middle horn.) 
The horn of the bull ought to be neither too low nor too high, 
tapering at the points, not too thick at the root, and of a yellow 
waxy color. The eye should be clear, bright and prominent, show¬ 
ing much of the white, and it ought to have around it a circle of 
variable colour, but usually a dark orange. The forehead should be 
flat, indented and small; for by the smallness of the forehead the 
purity of the blood is estimated. The cheek should be small, and 
the muzzle fine: the nose should be of a clear yellow. A black 
muzzle is disliked, and even a mottled one is objected to by some 
who pretend to be judges of the true Devon. The nostril should 
be high and open; the hair curled about the head, and giving, at 
first appearance, an idea of coarseness, which soon wears off. The 
neck should be thick, and that sometimes almost to a fault. 
Excepting in the head and neck, the form of the bull does not 
differ materially from that of the ox. The head of the ox is small, 
very singularly so, lelative to the bulk of the animal, yet it has a 
striking'breadth of forehead. It is clean and free from flesh about 
the jaws. The eye is very prominent, and the animal has a pleas¬ 
ing vivacity of countenance, plainly distinguishing it from the heavy 
aspect of many other breeds. Its neck is long and thin, admirably 
adapting it for the collar, and even for the more common and ruder 
yoke. 
The want of the beautifully arched form of the neck, which is seen 
in the horse, has been considered as a defect in most breeds of cat¬ 
tle. It is accounted one of the characteristics of good cattle that the 
line of the neck, from the horns to the withers should scarcely de¬ 
viate from that of the back. In the Devonshire ox, however, there 
is a peculiar rising of the forehead, reminding us not a little of the 
blood horse, and essentially connected with the quick and free ac¬ 
tion by which this breed has ever been distinguished. It has little 
or no dewlap depending from its throat. The horns are longer than 
those of the bull, smaller and fine even to the base, and of a lighter 
colour, and sometimes tipped with yellow. The animal is light in 
the withers; the shoulders a little oblique ; the breast deep, and the 
bosom open and wide, particularly as contrasted with the fineness 
of the withers. The fore legs are wide apart, looking like pillars 
that have to support a great weight. The point of the shoulder is 
rarely or never seen. There is no projection of bone as in the 
horse, but there is a kind of level line running on to the back. 
These are characteristic and important points. Angular and 
bony projections are never found on a beast that carries much flesh 
and fat. The fineness of the withers, the slanting direction of the 
shoulder, and the broad and open breast, imply both strength and 
speed, and aptitude to fatten. A narrow chested animal can never 
be useful for working or grazing. 
With all the likeness of the Devonshire ox, there is a point 
about him, disliked in the blood or riding horse, and not always ap¬ 
proved in the horse of light draft—the legs are far under the chest, 
or rather the breast projects far and wide before the legs. We see 
the advantage of this in the beast of slow draft, who rarely breaks 
into a trot, except when he is goaded on in catching times , and the 
division of whose foot secures him from stumbling. The lightness 
of the other parts of his form, however, counterbalances the appear¬ 
ance of heaviness here. 
The legs are straight, at least in the best breeds. If they are 
in-kneed, or crooked in the fore legs, it argues a deficiency in blood, 
and incapacity to work; and not only for work, but for grazing too, 
for they will be hollow behind the withers, a point for which nothing 
can compensate, because it takes away so much from the place 
where good flesh and fat should be thickly laid on, and diminishes 
the capacity of the chest, and the power of creating arterial and 
nutritious blood. 
The fore arm is particularly large and powerful. It swells out 
suddenly above the knee, but is soon lost in the substance of the 
shoulder. Below the knee the bone is small to a very extraordinary 
degree, indicating a seeming want of strength ; but this impression 
immediately ceases, for the smallness is only in front—it is only 
in the bone. It is the leg of the blood horse, promising both strength 
and speed. It may perhaps be objected that the leg is a little too 
long. It would be so in an animal that is destined only to graze; 
but this is a working animal, and some length of leg is necessary to 
get him pleasantly and actively over the ground. 
There is a trifling fall behind the withers, but no hollowness, and 
the line of the back is straight from them to the setting on of the 
tail. If there is any seeming fault in the beast, it is that the sides 
are a little too flat. It will appear, however, that this does not in¬ 
terfere with feeding, while a deep, although somewhat flat chest, is 
best adapted for speed. 
Not only is the breast broad, and the chest deep, but the two 
last ribs are particularly bold and prominent, leaving room for the 
stomach and other parts concerned in digestion to be fully develop¬ 
ed. The hips, or huckles, are high, and on a level with the back, 
whether the beast is fat or lean. The hind quarters, or the space 
from the huckle to the point of the rump, are particularly long, and 
well filled up—a point likewise of very considerable importance both 
for grazing and working. It leaves room for flesh in the most va¬ 
luable part, and, like the extensive and swelling quarters of the 
blood horse, indicate much power from behind, connected with 
strength and speed. This is an improvement quite of modern date. 
The fullness here, and the swelling out of the thigh below, are of 
much more consequence than the prominence of fat which is so 
much admired on the rump of many prize cattle. 
The setting on of the tail is high; it is on a level with the back, 
rarely much elevated, and never depressed. This is another great 
point in the blood horse, as connected with the perfection of the 
hind quarters. The tail itself is long, and small, and taper, with a 
round bunch of hair at the bottom. 
The skin of the Devon, notwithstanding his curly hair, is exceed¬ 
ingly mellow and elastic. Graziers know that there is not a 
more important point than this. When the skin can be easily rais¬ 
ed from the hips, it shows that there is room to set on fat below. 
The skin is thin rather than thick. Its appearance of thickness 
arises from the curly hair with which it is covered, and is curly in 
proportion to the condition and health of the animal. Good judges 
of these cattle speak of these curls as running like little ripples of 
wind on a pond of water. Some of these cattle have their hair 
smooth, but then it should be fine and glossy. Those with curled 
hair are somewhat more hardy, and fatten more kindly. The favo¬ 
rite colour is a blood red. This is supposed to indicate purity of 
breed; but there are many good cattle approaching almost to a 
chesnut hue, or even a bay brown. If the eye is clear and good, 
and the skin mellow, the paler colours will bear hard work, and fat¬ 
ten as well as others ; but a beast with a pale skin, and hard under 
