CATTLE. 79 



it suddenly and indiscriminately transferred from its home in the mountains to the richest 

 grazing valleys which our island can boast of without experiencing the slightest change as 

 regards health. Not alone this, but we have seen the beasts ushered at once into the dairy 

 sheds, and there confined for years in the closest bondage without any apparent effect on the 

 constitution. 



Dairy Properties, As regards the milking properties, they have been partially 

 indicated in the foregoing remarks. The udder is extremely well formed, and the milk veins 

 highly developed. I have had Kerries that milked sixteen quarts per day for a long period 

 of the summer, although fourteen or fifteen quarts for three months after calving is a pretty 

 general yield where a good system of feeding is adopted. Twelve quarts must be looked 

 upon as a good average for an entire season; in remote and coarse districts, where the 

 beasts have to maintain themselves on inferior herbage, nine quarts is probably nearer the 

 mark. The milk largely abounds in cream, and is nicely flavored. The butter is rich, 

 and for color and taste it stands unrivalled. 



One or two Kerries in the herd are sufficient to give the entire yield of butter a most 

 agreeable color and flavor; it is principally for this reason that we never like to be without a 

 few of these animals. Whereas it will require from ten to twelve quarts of the milk of other 

 breeds to produce one pound of butter, we have frequently realized the same amount from 

 eight or nine quarts of milk of the Kerry; of course the general feature is more or less 

 shared in, hat the proportion of butter is regulated in accordance with the feeding.&quot; 



Another writer of the London Live Stock Journal says: &quot; I have before me an instance of 

 an Lilliputian Kerry having produced 13 Ibs. of butter per week, a marvelous yield, con 

 sidering her size, for the Kerry cow is usually much smaller than the Jersey. But the 

 extraordinary statement about this is, that three pints of cream made one pound and four 

 and a half ounces of butter. Suppose the cream to be 25 per cent, of milk, which is not 

 uncommon, there would be six quarts of the latter. This would be at the rate of one pound 

 of butter to a fraction over four and a half quarts of milk.&quot; 



SHETLAND CATTLE. 



THESE are the smallest cattle in the world, and compare with the common-sized 

 breeds about as the Shetland pony does with the horse of ordinary dimensions. 

 When fully fattened, the carcass of a Shetland cow is said to scarcely exceed in 

 weight that of a long-wooled wether. An English writer says of them: &quot; These little 

 creatures are excellent milkers in proportion to their size; they are very hardy, are contented 

 with the scantiest pasturage, come early to maturity, are easily fattened, and their beef 

 surpasses that of all other breeds for tenderness and delicacy of flavor. The diminutive 

 cows of this breed are not unfrequently coupled with the Short-Horn bulls, and the progeny 

 from such apparently preposterous unions not only possess admirable fattening qualities, but 

 approximate in bulk to their sizes. These curious and handsome little creatures, apparently 

 of Scandinavian origin, are so peculiarly fitted to the circumstances of their bleak and 

 stormy habitat, that the utmost pains should be taken to preserve the breed in purity, and to 

 improve it by judicious treatment.&quot; 



The importation of these cattle into this country could not be recommended under any 

 circumstances whatever, except as curiosities, but in their own native land they are 

 exceedingly useful, since, like the Shetland pony, they will subsist on the most scanty 

 fare, and will thrive where almost any other breed could scarcely exist. 



