management of the Herd-Book, and to his exertions the breed owes a deep debt of gratitude.  One of the greatest supporters of the Herefordshire breed was Mr. Westcar of Creslow, who, starting in 1779, attended Hereford October Fair for forty years, and when the Smithfield Show commenced in 1799 won innumerable first prizes there with Herefordshire cattle.  Between 1799 and 1811 twenty of his Herefordshire prize oxen averaged L106 6s. each, and at the sale of Mr. Ben Tomkins’s herd after his death in 1819 twenty-eight breeding animals averaged L152, one cow fetching L262 15s.  Herefords are famous for their feeding qualities at grass, and good stores are scarce, the best being fattened on their native pastures.  They are not only almost the only breed in their own county, but few English counties south of Shropshire are without them; they have done well in Ireland, and in Canada, the United States, South America, and Australia have attained great success.  They are not so well qualified for crossing as Shorthorns, but have blended well with that breed, and produced good crosses with Ayrshires and Jerseys, but not with Devons.  It has been said that they are not a favourite sort with London butchers, as they require time to ripen, which does not suit a hurrying age.  Hence they probably flourished best under the old school of graziers, who sometimes kept them to six or seven years old.  At all events they are a very fine breed for beef purposes, their meat being particularly tender, juicy, and fine-grained.  They are seldom kept for dairy purposes, being poor milkers; consequently the calf is nearly always allowed to run with the dam, which accounts for the fact that one seldom sees pure-bred Herefords that are not well grown.  The highest price paid for a Hereford was 4,000 guineas for Lord Wilton in 1884.

Devons.

The cattle of North Devon can be traced as the peculiar breed of the county from which they take their name from the earliest records.  Bradley mentioned the red cattle of Somerset in 1726, and no doubt there were many in Devonshire.[745] William Marshall states (1805), and he is supported by subsequent writers, that ’they are of the middle horn class’, and in his time so nearly resembled the Herefordshire breed in frame, colour, and horn, as not to be distinguishable from them, except in the greater cleanness of the head and fore-quarters, and their smaller size.  Yet they could not have had the white faces and throats of the Herefords, as they have always been famous for their uniformity in colour—­a fine dark red.[746] He also compares them to the cattle of Sussex and the native cattle of Norfolk.[747] The Devons then differed very much in different parts of the county; those of North Devon taking the lead, being ’nearly what cattle ought to be’.  They were, considered as draught animals, the best workers anywhere beyond all comparison, though rather small, for which deficiency they made up in exertion and agility.  As dairy cattle they were not very good, since rearing for the east country graziers had long been the main object of Devon cattle farmers, but as grazing cattle they were excellent.