THE BEST BREEDS OF DAIRY CATTLE. 2Q 



breeding and management for centuries have been more carefully 

 attended to. They are, of course, by nature and habit unsuited 

 to rigorous climates, but for all that they are held in high esteem 

 in the United States and Canada. The Jerseys are particularly 

 elegant and pleasing in form and colour,- the latter being com- 

 monly a fawn or a silver grey, and they are constantly much 

 .sought after as ornaments to the grounds of country gentlemen. 

 The Guernseys are larger, coarser, less shapely, and their 

 colour is a dull yellow patched with white ; yet they are perhaps 

 the more profitable of the two. These two breeds have been 

 maintained in their purity by local Acts of Parliament which 

 forbid the importation of other breeds into the Islands. So, at 

 least, it is understood. However this may be, it may be taken 

 for granted that the British Islands do not possess a breed 

 more nearly pure, as breed is understood. The butter they 

 yield and they are essentially butter cows is deeper and 

 richer in colour than that of any other breed, and needs no 

 artificial colouring. Some farmers, indeed, have a few Jersey 

 or Guernsey cows, in order to improve the quality of the milk 

 yielded by the rest, particularly when butter-making is a speci- 

 ality. Americans think the Jerseys indispensable to the pro- 

 duction of what they call "gilt-edged butter !" 



Kerrys. 



Last, and least of all, we come to the one indigenous breed 

 of Ireland, the quaint, and gentle, and useful little Kerry, whose 

 native home is in the south of the Emerald Isle. Ten years 

 ago the Kerrys were hardly known outside the genial island to 

 which they belong, but now they are thought a good deal of in 

 various parts of England. They are, in fact, growing in favour, 

 and are being sent to various parts of the world. Their colour 

 is black, and their size but little greater than a donkey's. A sub- 

 variety, known as Dexter Kerrys, is not always all black. The 

 milk yielded by these little cows is next to that of Jerseys and 

 Guernseys in richness of butter fat, and they are consequently 

 excellent butter-cows. They are hardy, wiry, vigorous in their 



