76 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



" A few honourable exceptions, however, exist to this general neglect 

 of the mountain dairy breed of Ireland. One attempt had succeeded 

 to such a degree as to form a new breed, which partially exists with 

 the characters communicated to it. It has been termed the Dexter 

 breed. It was formed by the late Mr. Dexter, agent to Maude Lord 

 Hawarden. This gentlemen is said to have produced his curious 

 breed by selection from the best of the mountain cattle of the district. 

 He communicated to it a remarkable roundness of form and shortness 

 of legs. The steps, however, by which this improvement was effected, 

 have not been sufficiently recorded, and some doubt may exist whether 

 the original was the pure Kerry, or some other breed proper to the 

 central parts of Ireland, now unknown, or whether some foreign blood, 

 as the Dutch, was not mixed with the native race. One character of the 



Photo by G. H. Parsons. 



Fig. 28. Dexter Cow, "Compton Daphne." 



Champion at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show at Lincoln, 1907. 

 The property of the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Eastbourne. 



Dexter breed is frequently observed in certain cattle of Ireland, namely, 

 short legs, and a small space from the knee and hock to the hoofs. 

 When any individual of a Kerry drove appears remarkably round and 

 short-legged, it is common for the country people to call it a Dexter. 



" The Kerry cows afford admirable first crosses with the Shorthorns, 

 Herefords, and other large breeds. Of these crosses that with the 

 Shorthorns is the most general, and appears to be the best. The 

 crosses are found well adapted to fattening as well as to the dairy ; 

 and the profit from this system is so immediate that it is to be believed 

 that it will be more largely resorted to than a progressive improvement 

 of the parent stock. 



" Nevertheless, the cultivation of the pure dairy breed of the Kerry 



