SOIEMTFIC PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE DEXTEE-KERRY BREED OF CATTLE. 



By JAMES WILSON, M.A., B.Sc, 



Professor of Agriculture iu the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



[Read Novembek 24 ; Ordered for Publication Becembeu 8, 1908. Published January 20, 1909.] 

 (Plates I.-IV.) 



The theory most widely accepted as to the origin of the Dexter breed of 

 cattle is the one set forth in Professor David Low's Domesticated Animals of 

 the British Islands, published in 1845. Low writes that the breed " was 

 formed by the late Mr. Dexter, agent to the late 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 communicated to it a 

 remarkable roundness of form and shortness of legs. The steps, however, 

 by which the 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." 



The facts that there are other theories rivals to Low's, that Low himself 

 cites no authorities, that he is doubtful whether the method attributed to 

 Dexter was the one he actually employed, and that, by referring to Dexter 

 as " the late Mr. Dexter," and indicating thereby that he believed the breed 



SCIENT. PROC. K.D.S., VOL. XII., NO. I. B 



