The Principles of Breeding / or, Glimpses at the Physiological Laws involved in the Reproduction and Improvement of Domestic Animals

by S. L. Goodale

The Devons have been less extensively, and more recently, introduced than the Short-horn, but the experience of those who have fairly tried them fully sustains the opinions given above, and they promise to become a favorite and prevailing breed. The usual objection made to them by those who have been accustomed to consider improvement in cattle to be necessarily connected with enlargement of size, is, that they are too small. But their size instead of being a valid objection, is believed to be a recommendation, the Devons being as large as the fertility of New England soils generally are capable of feeding fully and profitably.

Their qualities as working oxen are unrivalled, no other breed so uniformly furnishing such active, docile, strong and hardy workers as the Devons, and their uniformity is such as to render it very easy to match them. Without possessing so early maturity as the Short-horns, they fatten readily and easily at from four to six years old, and from their compact build and well balanced proportions usually weigh more than one accustomed to common cattle would anticipate.

The Devons are not generally deep milkers but the milk is richer than that of most other breeds, and some families, where proper care and attention have been given to this quality in breeding, yield largely. It is, however, as a breed for general use, combining beef, labor and milk, in fair proportion, that the Devons will generally give best satisfaction, as they are hardy enough to suit the climate, and cheaply furnish efficient labor and valuable meat.

Farmers, whose ideas upon stock have been formed wholly from their experience with Short-horns and their grades, have often been surprised at witnessing the facility with which Devons sustain themselves upon scanty pasturage, and not a few when first critically examining well bred specimens, sympathize with the feeling which prompted the remark made to the reporter of the great English Exhibition at Chester, after examining with him fine specimens of the Devons—"I am delighted; I find we Short-horn men have yet much to learn of the true formation of animals; their beautiful contour and extreme quality of flesh surprise me."

The Herefords are an ancient and well established breed, and are probably entitled to be called a race. Little is known with certainty of their origin beyond the fact that for many generations they can be traced as the peculiar breed of the county whence they derive their name. Youatt says that "Mr. Culley, although an excellent judge of cattle, formed a very erroneous opinion of the Herefords when he pronounced them to be nothing but a mixture of the Welsh with a bastard race of Long Horns. They are evidently an aboriginal breed, and descended from the same stock as the Devon. If it were not for the white face and somewhat larger head and thicker neck it would not at all times be easy to distinguish between a heavy Devon and a light Hereford."

Mr. Gisborne says "The Hereford brings good evidence that he is the British representative of a widely diffused and ancient race. The most uniform drove of oxen which we ever saw, consisted of five hundred from the Ukraine. They had white faces, upward horns and tawny bodies. Placed in Hereford, Leicester or Northampton markets, they would have puzzled the graziers as to the land of their nativity; but no one would have hesitated to pronounce that they were rough Herefords."

Mr. Rowlandson, in his prize report on the farming of Herefordshire, says "The Herefords, or as they have sometimes been termed, the middle horned cattle have ever been esteemed a most valuable breed, and when housed from the inclemency of the weather, probably put on more meat and fat in proportion to the food consumed, than any other variety. They are not so hardy as the North Devon cattle, to which they bear a general resemblance; they however are larger than the Devons, especially the males. On the other hand, the Herefords are larger boned, to compensate for which defect, may be cast in the opposite scale the fact that the flesh of the Hereford ox surpasses all other breeds for that beautiful marbled appearance caused by the intermixture of fat and lean which is so much prized by the epicure. The Hereford is usually deeper in the chine, and the shoulders are larger and coarser than the Devon. They are worse milkers than the Devon, or than, perhaps, any other breed, for the Hereford grazier has neglected the female and paid the whole of his attention to the male." It is said that formerly they were of a brown or reddish brown color, and some had grey or mottled faces. Mr. P. Tully states that the white face originated accidentally on a farm belonging to one of his ancestors. "That about the middle of the last century the cow-man came to the house announcing as a remarkable fact that the favorite cow had produced a white faced bull calf. This had never been known to have occurred before, and, as a curiosity it was agreed that the animal should be kept and reared as a future sire. Such, in a few words, is the origin of a fact that has since prevailed through the country, for the progeny of this very bull became celebrated for white faces." Of late years there has been much uniformity of color; the face, throat, the under portion of the body, the inside and lower part of the leg's and the tip of the tail being white, and the other parts of the body a rich deep red.

Compared with the Short-horn the Hereford is nearly as large, of rather less early maturity, but a better animal for grazing, and hardier. The competition between these breeds in England is very close and warm, and taking many facts together it would seem probable that the Hereford is in some instances rather more profitable, and the Short-horn generally more fashionable. Challenges have been repeatedly offered by Hereford men to Shorthorn men to feed an equal number of each in order to test their respective merits, and have usually been declined, perhaps because if the decision was against them, the loss might be serious, and if they won, the gain would be little or nothing, the Short-horns being more popular already and commanding higher prices.

As working oxen the Herefords are preferable to the Short-horns, being more hardy and active. Some complaint is made of their being "breachy." Their large frames demand food, and if enough be furnished they are content, but if not, they have intelligence and activity enough to help themselves if food be within reach. Their chief merit is as large oxen, for heavy labor, and for beef. Some grade cows from good milking dams give a fair quantity of milk, and what they give is always rich, but wherever they have been introduced, milking qualities generally deteriorate very much.

The Ayrshires are a breed especially valuable for dairy purposes. Regarding its origin, Mr. Aiton who felt much interest in the subject, and whose opportunities for knowing the facts were second to those of no other, writing about forty years since, says, "The dairy breed of cows in the county of Ayr now so much and so deservedly esteemed, is not, in their present form, an ancient or indigenous race, but a breed formed during the memory of living individuals and which have been gradually improving for more than fifty years past, till now they are brought to a degree of perfection that has never been surpassed as dairy stock in any part of Britain, or probably in the world. They have increased to double their former size, and they yield about four and some of them five times as much milk as formerly. By greater attention to breeding and feeding, they have been changed from an ill-shaped, puny, mongrel race of cattle to a fixed and specific breed of excellent color and quality. So gradually and imperceptibly were improvements in the breed and condition of the cattle introduced, that although I lived in Ayrshire from 1760 to 1785, and have traversed it every year since, I have difficulty in stating from my own observation or what I have learned from others, either the precise period when improvement began, or the exact means by which a change so important was wrought." He then relates several instances in which between 1760 and 1770 some larger cows were brought in of the English or Dutch breeds, and of their effect he says, "I am disposed to believe that although they rendered the red color with white patches fashionable in Ayr, they could not have had much effect in changing the breed into their present highly improved condition," and thinks it mainly due to careful selections and better treatment.