No. 4. Irish Cattle. 113 



IRISH CATTLE. 



The above cut represents the large variety of Irish Cattle, evidently identical with the 

 Craven or Lancashire breed, and they are indeed a most valuable breed of cattle. Whence 

 these long-horns came, is a question that has been much disputed ; they very much resem- 

 ble the English long-horns, but whether Ireland or England was the native country of this 

 breed will never be determined, for ancient records are silent on the subject, and in both 

 countries we can trace the long-horns to a very remote period. As, from very early times 

 Ireland has materially contributed to the supply of the British capital and the navy, and 

 thousands of these beasts yearly traverse every part of Britain, many persons conclude that 

 the English long-horns sprung from some of these, arrested in different parts of their jour- 

 ney ; while others, finding the midde-horns in every mountainous and unfrequented part of 

 the country and the long-horns in the lower and more thickly inhabited districts, regard the 

 first as the pure native breed, and consider the other to have been a stranger race, intro- 

 duced probably from Lancashire, where a breed of cattle of the same form and character is found. 

 There were, however, even at that time, either two distinct breeds of long-horns in Ireland 

 — the one capable of rapid improvement, while the other, in a manner set at defiance every 

 means to add to the size or give a tendency to early maturity ; or there were found too great 

 a proportion of agriculturists who obstinately refused to adopt the proper means for the ame- 

 lioration of their stock, afibrded in many instances gratuitously by the large land-owners and 

 breeders of the country ; for, from some cause or other, there are at tiie present moment, 

 two kinds of these cattle in Ireland, in character essentially different; the larger — which 

 our cut faithfully describes — and a smaller, prevailing principally in the north of the island. 



At first view, perliaps, these may appear to bo the same cattle, only smaller, from poor keep and bad manaire- 

 ment ; but their horns, long out of all proportion, their clumsy heads, large bones and thick hides, their bulki- 

 ness of dewlap contrasted with their lightness of carcass — in fine, an accumulation of defects about them, 

 clearly mark them as being of far inferior value ; but thousands of these find their way into the midland coun- 

 ties of England, in order that some attempt may be made to prepare them for the market, but the purchase ia 

 1 uite a lottery ; occasionally they will thrive to a degree not much inferior to the Welsh cattle, while at other 

 '■ . es a lot of them may be put on as good fattenins pasture as any, and be continued there the whole of sum- 

 mer, consuming as much food as the largest oxen, and yet scarcely improving at all in condition. The first 

 attempt at crossing the lonshorns with the improved short-horns failed in a great measure, for altliough it was 

 found that the first cross was evident in the early maturity of the progeny, and that they weighed as much at 

 three years old as the pure long-horn at five, yet the breed rapidly declined, and it was found that while the 

 cattle bred back to the native Irish character, they never fully regained their hardihood, or their reputation as 

 milkers: the pure short-horns answering only when the farmer had the means of housing and feeding them 

 well, the Irish husbandman had too much to alter in the system of treatment to which he and his forefathers 

 had been accustomed, often not having the means to effect the change, or if he had, his prejudices forbade hjia 

 to use ttiein. 



