Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

24 CATTLE.
aptitude to fatten is increased, and its property as a milker jnight
be improved, without detriment to its grazing qualities.
Those points in which the Devons were deficient thirty years ago,
are now fully supplied, and all that is now wanting, is a judicious
selection of the most perfect of the present breed, in order to pre-
serve it in its state of greatest purity. Many of the breeders are as
careless as they ever were ; but the spirit of emulation is excited in
others. Mr. Davy, of North Molton, lately sold a four-year old bull,
for which the purchaser had determined to give one hundred guineas
had it been asked.
The Devon cattle are more than usually free from disease. The
greater part of the maladies of cattle, and all those of the respira-
tory system, are owing to injudicious exposure to cold and wet ; the
height and thickness of the Devonshire fences, as affording a comfortable
shelter to the-cattle, may have much to do with this exemp-
tion from disease.
The Devons have been crossed with the Guernsey breed, and the consequence
has been, that they have been rendered more valuable for the
dairy ; but they have been so much injured for the plough, and for
the grazier, that the breeders are jealous to preserve the old stock in
their native purity.
The treatment of the calf is nearly the same in every district of
North Devon. The calves that are dropped at Michaelmas, and
some time afterward, are preferred to those that come in February,
notwithstanding the additional trouble and expense during the winter.
The calf is permitted to suck three times every day for a week. It
is then used to the finger, and warm new milk is given it for three
weeks longer. For two months afterward it has plenty of warm
scalded milk, mixed with a little finely-powdered linseed-cake. Its
morning and evening meals are then gradually lessened ; and, when
it is four months old, it is quite weaned,
Of the other districts of Devonshire little need be*said. Toward
the south, extending from Hartland towards Tiverton; the Devons
prevail, and in their greatest state of purity. There are more dairies
than in the north, and supplied principally by the Devon cows.
Such are the differences of opinion even in neighboring districts, that
the later calves are here uniformly prefeiTed, which are longer suckled,
and afterward fed with milk and linseed-meal.
Advancing more to 'the south, and toward the borders of Cornwall,
a different breed presents itself, heavier and coarser. We have
arrived now in the neighborhood of Devonport, where larger cattle
are required for the service of the navy ; but we must go a little more
to the south, and enter on the tract of country which extends from
Tavistock to Newton Abbott, before we have the South Devons in
full perfection. They are a mixture of the Devons With the native
breed of the country ; and so adapted do they seem to be to the