310 THE OX. 



tion of the females to the purposes of the domestic dairy. In 

 milking properties, the Kerry Cow, taking size into account, 

 is equal or superior to any in the British Islands. It is the 

 large quantity of milk yielded by an animal so small, which 

 renders the Kerry Cows so generally valued by the cottagers 

 and smaller tenants of Ireland. She is frequently termed 

 the Poor Man's Cow, and she merits this appellation by her 

 capacity of subsisting on such fare as he has the means to 

 supply. 



This fine little breed has been greatly neglected. Scarcely 

 any means have been used to produce a progressive develop- 

 ment of form, by supplying proper nourishment to the breed- 

 ing parents and the young, and no general care has been be- 

 stowed on preserving the purity of the stock. In almost 

 every part of Ireland the breed has been crossed with the 

 Long-horns, and a great proportion of the Cows of the country 

 known under the name of Kerries, are the result of crosses 

 of this kind, and so have deviated in a greater or less degree 

 from the native type, and almost always for the worse. 



A few honourable exceptions, however, exist to this too 

 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 communi- 

 cated to it. It has been termed the Dexter Breed. It was 

 formed by the late Mr Dexter, agent to Maude Lord Haw- 

 warden. This gentleman 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 re- 

 corded, 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 Dexter Breed is frequently observed in cer- 

 tain cattle of Ireland, namely, short legs, and a small space 



