72 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



THE Two BREEDS OF IRISH CATTLE are known as the Kerry and 

 the Dexter respectively, though the latter used to be termed the 

 " Dexter Kerry." Chiefly through the exertions of the late Mr. James 

 Robertson of La Mancha, Malahide, near Dublin, the " Irish beauties " 

 have obtained in recent years a good deal of popularity, and are now to 

 be found in many places in England. Not much bigger than donkeys, 

 they yield a surprising quantity of milk, which is of superior quality. 

 They are mostly kept in the hilly counties of Ireland, and chiefly in the 

 county from which their name is derived. 



The first volume of the " Kerry and Dexter Herd Book" was pub- 

 lished by the Royal Dublin Society in the autumn of 1890. It is 

 therein stated that Kerry cattle were shown for the first time at cattle 

 shows of the Society at the Spring Show of 1844. A distinct class 

 for Dexters was first introduced in 1876. It is generally believed the 

 Kerry cattle are the descendants of a well-defined native breed of great 

 antiquity ; but it is difficult to trace the history of the breed farther 

 back than the middle of the eighteenth centmy. Since that time the 

 character of the breed in the remoter parts of Kerry seems to have 

 undergone little, if any, change. 1 



The conditions of entry in the Herd Book include (vol. ii.) the 

 following : 



Kerry Bulls must be pure black, with the exception of a few grey 

 hairs about the organs of generation, in animals of exceptional 

 merit. 



Kerry Cows and Heifers must be pure black, but in animals of 

 exceptional merit there may be white on the underline, and a few 

 white hairs in the tail the white on the underline not to extend 

 beyond the forelegs in front, nor in width beyond the line of the 

 elbow. 



Dexter Bulls and Cows may be either black or red, with a little 

 white. 



Mr. Housman says, in the report previously quoted from : 



" The Dexter to whatever cross it is indebted for its variation from 

 the old Kerry type is often also a deep milker, and can breed up to 

 most wonderful proportions of depth and thickness, on its tiny, com- 

 pact frame. When of a red colour, as it sometimes is, it has been 

 known to present the appearance of a grand Shorthorn seen through 

 the wrong end of a telescope. The blue grey is one of its somewhat 

 attractive varieties of colour. 



" The two types are tolerably distinct. The Kerry (figs. 25 and 26) 



1 Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Wilde stated as his opinion, in 1858, that about twenty- 

 five years previously (say, in 1830,) there were four native breeds of cattle in Ireland : 



(1) The Old Irish Cow, of small statute, long in the back, with moderate sized, wide-spreading, 

 slightly elevated and projecting horns ; in colour they were principally black and red. 



(2) The Irish Longhorns, resembling the Lancashire and Craven ; in some cases the horns 

 were wide-spreading and only slightly curved, but frequently the horns were so completely 

 curved inwards as to cross in front of or behind the mouth : these were large animals of a 

 brindled-red colour. (3) The Maol or Moyle, a polled or hornless variety, similar to the 

 Angus : a medium-sized, docile animal, dun, black, or white in colour, rarely mottled ; 

 much used for draught and ploughing. (4) The Kerry, somewhat of a middle horn. The 

 Kerry and Dexter Herd Book, Vol. I. 



