202 MILCH CATTLE THE KERRY 



of cattle which, for beauty of head and shortness of horn, 

 might vie with some of the best modern improved races so 

 much admired by stock-masters, and which are now being 

 reintroduced from England." The latter are extinct. The 

 Longhorn, still represented by a few herds, seems to have 

 been a more recent introduction ; but the curved or middle- 

 horned variety is represented in the Kerry and Dexter of the 

 present day. The accounts of Kerry cattle by Low and 

 Youatt are rather contradictory, and a little confusing ; but 

 two articles in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, dated 

 1872 and 1898, and Pringle's chapter in Coleman's Cattle of 

 Great Britain, deal interestingly with the subject. 



"The true Kerry 'the thoroughbred of Irish cattle,' is 

 (1872) a light, neat, active animal, with fine and rather long 

 limbs, narrow rump, fine small head, lively projecting eye, full 

 of fire and animation, with a fine [waxy yellow or] white 

 cocked horn tipped with black, and in colour either black 

 or red." The latter colour is not eligible for entering in the 

 English Herd Book. 



Kerries first appeared at the Spring Show of the Royal 

 Dublin Society in 1844, but a separate class for Dexters was 

 not established till 1876. The Dublin Farmers' Gazette 

 published the first " Register of Pure Kerry Cattle and 

 Dexters" in 1887, under the auspices of the Society. Kerries 

 have in recent years attracted great attention in England as 

 ornamental cattle, and have on more than one occasion been 

 publicly taken notice of by Royalty. 1 After the breed had 

 fully established its reputation not only as showyard celebrities 

 but as ornamental as well as general-purpose animals of high 

 merit, the English Kerry and Dexter Cattle Society (of 

 which H.M. the King is the patron and a life member), 

 founded in 1892, and incorporated in 1899, published the first 

 volume of its Herd Book in 1900. By its regulations "a 

 cross between the Kerry and Dexter is considered a half-breed, 

 and cannot be entered." 



The following is a list of a few of the most prominent 

 breeders in the English Society, which numbers over seventy 

 members : 



His Majesty the King; B. de Bertodano, Cowbridge 

 House, Malmesbury, Wilts; F. P. Bulley, Marston Hill, 

 1 The King owns a good herd of Dexters. 





