208 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Ireland, several years since, in the ship Jamestown, and hence 

 was called " the Jamestown Cow," which closely resembles 

 the Suffolks I have seen in England. A bull from this cow by 

 a Jersey bull has been kept in Dedham several years, and has 

 left a progeny which in general appear to possess superior dairy 

 properties. 



The Kerry breed belongs to the county of that name in 

 Ireland, or more especially to the mountainous portion of that 

 county, where they have probably existed coeval with the 

 present race of human inhabitants. They are very different 

 from the cattle which occupy the lower and more fertile sections 

 of the island — the latter, as has already been observed, belong- 

 ing to the Long-horn tribe, of large size, the horns drooping, 

 sometimes crossing each other beneath the lower jaw. The 

 Kernes, 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, sometimes 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 says she is " emphatically the poor man's cow ; hardy, 

 living every where, yielding, for her size, abundance of milk of 

 good quality." Milburn says : " she is a treasure to the cottage 

 farmer — so hardy that she will 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 for the purpose of learning their character- 

 istics, and purchasing some to send to America. I found the 

 cattle somewhat smaller than I had supposed them to be, but 

 evidently very useful in that locality — 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, sharing with the goat the 

 wild herbage of the mountain's side. As illustrating their 

 hardiness, the following incident is given : A man led me up a 

 mountain glen to see a lot of three-year-old heifers he had graz- 

 ing there. It appeared a mystery to me how the cattle could 

 get round and over the rough rocks, and obtain a subsistence, 

 even in summer. Having noticed that the man had several 



