80 BATTLE. 



menced improvement. Mr. Waller introduced some old Lancashires. 

 Sixty years afterwards, was brought over one of the new Leicester 

 breed, and there was scarcely a cottager near him that did not 

 possess a cow displaying some traces of the Leicester blood. The 

 Earl of Bective and Mr. Noble contributed to the improvement of 

 the breed in this part of Ireland. 



About the same time, Lord Massarene and others introduced some 

 line long-horned cattle into Antrim ; and Lord Farnham into Ca- 

 van. In Langford, the Earl of Rosse ; in Clare, Sir Edward O'Brien, 

 Mr. Doxon, Mr. Moloney, and Mr. Blood. In Roscommon, the 

 Messrs. Finch ; and indeed almost every county and barony of Ire- 

 land had its zealous and successful improver of the native breed, 

 until, in the richei and more cultivated districts, the cattle became of 

 as great a size and as perfect form as any of the midland districts of 

 England. 



There are at the present two kinds of these cattle in Ireland, in 

 character essentially difierent ; the larger, which we have described, 

 and a smaller, prevailing principally in the north of the island. At 

 first view, perhaps, these would appear to be the same cattle, only 

 smaller from poor keep and bad management ; but their horns, long 

 out of all proportion, clumsy heads, hirge bones and thick hides, 

 bulkiness 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. 



In process of time, the Enghsh long-horns, although of the im- 

 proved Bakewell breed, began to lose ground even in their native 

 country ; or rather a rival with higher merits appeared in the field. 

 The short-horns began to attract the attention of the breeder ; and 

 their propensity to fatten, and earlier maturity, soon became evident. 

 There were not wanting spirited agriculturists in Ireland, who quick- 

 ly availed themselves of this new mode of improving the Hibernian 

 cattle. Sir Henry Vane Tempest was one of the first who introduced 

 the short-horn bull. The improvement effected by the first cross 

 was immediately evidei t in the early maturity of the progeny. The 

 pure short-horn, or this cross with the long-horn, weighed as much 

 at three years old as the pure long-horn used to do at five. But the 

 first experiment in a great degree failed. 



The reputation of the short-horn, however, becoming more spread 

 in England, other attempts were made to introduce him into Ireland, 

 and the experiments were more systematically conducted. And 

 great improvement has been effected in the Irish cattle of late 

 years, by the importation of the Durham breed. They have dis- 

 placed a cross of the long-horn Leicester on the Irish cow, and the 

 farmers of the country now prefer a cross of the Durham bull on the 

 Irish cow, to the pure breed, as being less delicate, and giving a 

 richer and greater quantity of milk. 



