A SOUTH DEVON TRIUMPH.
An exceptionally good example of the skill of our breeders was to be seen in the judging rings of the show of the admirable Bath and West Society, held at Torquay. It is a show strikingly different from the Royal Counties, held this week at Reading. It is of the West Country Western, and a large proportion of the exhibitors are working farmers. The Royal Counties Show suggests no locality, and may be said to exist for the rich and so-called gentleman farmer, who does not much care whether he makes or loses money—indeed, almost always budgets for a heavy loss. We owe this sort of farmer much, and may he prosper ; but it is the other sort that matters. Now in the South West the working farmers produced the breed of South Devon cattle, which developed to such proportions on the congenial fields of Devon that many of them attained to a ton in weight. They paid well as beef cattle, and their enormous joints were sent for the most part to Devonport to feed sailors and soldiers ; and the trade
was remunerative.
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