No. 12. 



The Kerry Cow. 



369 



THE KERRY COW. 



The Cow of Kerry is truly a poor 'mnn''s cow, livintr everywhere, hardy, and yielding", for 

 her size, abundance of milk of good quality, and fatting rapidly when required so to do. 

 They are found in almost every mountainous district; are small, light, active and wild : the 

 head small, the horns short and turned rather upright; and although somewhat deficient in 

 the hind quarters they are wide over the hips, and the bone not heavy: the hair long, the 

 colour in some places black, in others brindled, and others black or brindled with white faces; 

 fine in the neck with a lively eye and sharp muzzle, with great activity. They are exceed- 

 ingly hardy, living through the winter, and sometimes fatting, on their native mountains 

 and moors in the summer ; and when removed to better pasture they fatten with great ra- 

 pidity; are generally very good milkers and many of them excellent in this respect. 



The slightest inspection of our present cut will convince the reader of the great difference 

 between this breed and the larger breed of Irish cattle so faithfully pourtrayed at p. 113 of 

 the Cabinet for November; but, were it not for the cloddiness about the shoulder, and the 

 shortness and thickness of the lower part of the neck and the pied colour, we could almost 

 fancy that we here saw the middle-horn north Devon cow. While the long-horned breed are 

 met with in the valleys and rich pastures of the low land, this small race of animals is con- 

 fined to the hilly and moory ground or scanty portion of land possessed by the cottager and 

 small farmer; and yet there are spots of better pasture where they are found of a consider- 

 able size, and in Connaught, they are much improved in size as well as form ; the horns 

 somewhat larger, but still turning upward ; but they are shorter in the leg and body, their 

 loins and haunches heavy and wide; and althoucrh the hair is thick, the hide is mellow, and 

 they thrive with a rapidity rarely excelled by any other breed. And although this breed is 

 now not met with pure, except inland on the mountains, being nearly worn out in the more 

 civilized parts of the country by repeated crossings with the Leicester, Hereford and Devon, 

 yet for the dairy, all farmers still prefer those cows which show most of the native Irish 

 blood, Mr. Rawson of Kildare thus describes the dairy cow of Kerry. — She should have a 

 sweet countenance, neat, clean horn, head small, neck thin at head, tapering gently and 

 increasing when meeting the shoulder, shoulders flat and thin in the blade, chine not too 

 fine, chest deep and full at the breast, ribs round and swelling, hips not too wide and nearly 

 concealed by the hijh archinj of the ribs, hind quarters broad and lengthy, narrowing grad- 

 ually to the tail, which should lie snug between the bones, the quarters on the outside flat, 

 on the inside full, but not extending too low, legs fine and clean in the bone but not too long. 

 All which is faithfully depicted in the cut above, exhibiting a cow about as perfect for dairy 

 purposes as can well be conceived of; the moimtainous situation which they occupy in Ire- 

 land seems to point them out, like the Welsh and the Scotch, as the original breed, and 

 to prove, that one of a very similar character was indigenous to both islands. 



