THE IRISH BREEDS OF CATTLE. 



of the stock. In almost every part of Ireland the breed has been 

 crossed with the Scotch Kyloe, and a great proportion of the cows of 

 the country known under the name of Kerries are the reslilt 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 honorable exceptions, however, exist to this too general 

 neglect of the mountain dairy breed of Ireland. One attempt has 

 succeeded to such a degree as to form a new breed, which partia'ly 

 exists with the character communicated to it. It has been termed 

 the Dexter-Kerry. It was found by the late Mr. Dexter, agent to 

 Maude Lord Hawarden. This gentleman is said to have produced 

 his curious breed by selection from the best of the mountain cattle of 

 the district He communit fcted to it a remarkable roundness of form 

 and shortness of legs. The steps, however, by which this improve- 

 ment was effected have not been sufficiently recorded, and some doubt 

 may exist whether the original was a pure Kerry or some other breed 

 proper to the central parts of Ireland now unknown, or whether some 

 foreign blood not mixed with the native race. 



" The Kerry cows afford admirable first crosses with the Ayrshire 

 North Devons, and other larger breeds. Of these crosses, that witn me 

 Ayrshire is the most general, and appe.ns to be the best. The 

 crosses are aound to be well adapted to fattening, as well as to thj 

 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 Mountains ou^ht not to b? neglected 

 by individuals or public associations. The breed is yet the best that 

 is reared over a large extent of country, from its adaptation to the 

 existing state of agriculture, and to the humid mountains and bogs 

 in which it is naturalised. Were it to be reared with care in a good 

 district, the form would be gradually more developed, and the Kerry 

 breed might then bear the same relation to the mountain breeds of 

 Ireland which the Castle-Martin does to those o-f Wales, or the West 

 Highland does to those of the North of Scot'and." 



It is a great number of years since David Low wrote this article 

 on the Kerry breed of cattle, and no doubt from his intimate acquaint- 

 ance with natural history he formed a correct estimate of the value 

 of the breed in Ireland. Since then, however, men's attention has 

 been more and more drawn towards the improvement of soil and the 

 providing o-i more and better food for their stock. That being so, few 

 indeed will be found to waste time manufacturing breeds out. of runts 

 when they can obtain those that only require more food and care. 



But when we turn our attention to the Brittany breed of cattle, 

 which centuries ago was one and the same breed as the Kerry, we 

 are at once confronted with a classic breed of cattle which have been 

 kept free from any alloy blood for centuries. The cradle of this re- 

 markable Lieed of cattle is the north of France, where dwell the most 

 Celtic o-f the races of France. In the people of Brittany there is 

 nothing of the Norman. They are purely Celtic, even as Irish as the 

 Cornish, the Welsh, and the Highland Scottish. They are people of 

 warm hearts, quick minds, sensitive to suffering, energetic in finding 

 the remedy, Greek in temperament rather than Roman. 



It is patent to all who have studied the history of the Brittany and 

 Kerry breeds of cattle that they are descended from the identical 

 ancestor, having been prized for their dairy qualities more than for 

 that of their meat-producing properties. Hence it is that the/ were 

 not admired by English breeders. This breed, therefore, unlike the 

 4 Longhorns," escaped the notice of the beef-breeders of England. 



The Brittany breed may be described briefly as being black and 

 white in color, below the average dairy animal in size, well shaped 



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