132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from what is known of it in Ireland, it may likely prove valuable in 

 sections where larger ones would not thrive. They are quite small, 

 very hardy, easily kept, and for their size yield largely of very 

 rich milk. In 1858, Mr. Sanford Howard visited Kerry county in 

 Ireland, and purchased five heifers and a bull for A. W. Austin, 

 Esq., of West Roxbury, Massachusetts. These I saw during the 

 past season at his residence, with their progeny, and was greatly 

 interested in examining them. They have increased very much in 

 size upon the better feed given them, being now nearly as large as 

 common cows, are very symmetrical and handsome, and were rep- 

 resented as giving a large yield of very rich milk. Mr. Austin 

 indulges the hope that they will prove a most valuable accession 

 to the stock of the country, particularly for severe climates and 

 scant, hilly pastures. In some points they excel any cattle I had 

 previously seen. Mr. Howard saj's of them : 



" The Kerry Breed belungs to the county of that name in Ireland, or more 

 especially to the mountainous portion of that county, where they have proba- 

 bly existed coeval with the present race of human inhabitants. They are very 

 dift'urent from the cattle which occupy the lower and more fertile sections of 

 the island— the latter, as has already been obsei'ved, belonging to the Long- 

 horn tribe, of large size, the horns drooping, sometimes crossing each other 

 beneath the lower jaw. The Kerries, on the other hand, are small, with 

 horns of medium length, rising, and generally somewhat spreading. The 

 color ranges from black to brindled and red, simetimes with a little white, 

 but black is the prevailing color, and is preferred as denoting the nearest 

 affinity with the original type. The Kerry cow has always been considered 

 remarkable as a milker. Youatt sa^'s she is ' emphatically the poor man's 

 cow : hardy, living everywhere, yielding for her size abundance of milk of 

 good quality.' Milburn says, 'she is a treasure to the cottage farmer — so 

 hardy that she Avill live where other cattle starve. She is a perfect machine 

 for converting the coarsest cattle-food into rich and nutritious milk and 

 butter.' 



In 1858, and also in 1859, I visited the native country of the Kerry cattle, 

 chiefly f«r the purjwse of learning their characteristics, and purchasing some 

 to send to America. I found tlie cattle somewhat smaller than 1 liad supposed 

 tliem to be, but evidently very useful in that localitv — living where no other 

 dairy cattle that I have ever seen could live. In several instances they were 

 met with at elevations of fifteen hundred to two thousand feet above the sea, 

 Bharing with the goat the wild herbage of the mountain's side. As illustrat- 

 ing their hardiness, the following incident is given : A man led mc up a moun- 

 tain-glen to see a lot of three-year-old heifers he iiad grazing there. It ap- 

 peared a mystery to me liow the cattle could get round and over the rough 

 rocks, and olitain a subsistence, even in summer. Having noticed that the 

 man had several stacks of hay down in the valley, where was the rude habita- 

 tion which he called his home, 1 asked him if he was g(/ing to take tlie Kerry 

 cattle there for the winter. lie replied, ' no, the hay is for the lowland cat- 

 tle and ponies.' He had just been telling of the deep snows which sometimes 

 fall in the mountains, and I asked wiiat the cattle would do in such cases. 

 He said, ' the snow generally softens after a day or two, and the cattle can 

 v)ork throufjh it.^ 



it is difficult to estimate the weight of these cattle, compared with others, 



