Wilson — The Origin of the Dexter- Kerr i/ Breed of Cattle. 8 



We are, therefore, forced to look elsewhere for evidence of Mr. Dexter's 

 connexion with the breed that bears his name ; and it must be confessed 

 that the evidence against the theory that Dexter originated the breed, as 

 well as against the method which Low says he was believed to have 

 employed, is very strong. 



The chief arguments against the Dexter theory of origin are these :^ 



(i.) Dexter's name is not mentioned in connexion with any breed of 

 cattle by any writer previous to Low. Youatt's Cattle was published in 

 183-1 ; Wakefield's Account of Ireland in 1812 ; and the Statistical Surveys of 

 the Irish counties were published in the first years of the nineteenth century; 

 yet, though Kerry cattle and cattle of Dexter type are occasionally 

 mentioned, tliere is no mention either of Mr. Dexter or of Dexter cattle. 

 Unfortunately, though the Survey of Tipperary was begun, it was never 

 finished. 



(ii) Cattle of Dexter type are recorded not only in Kerry but in other 

 parts of Ireland too early and too distant from Tipperary to be traceable to 

 Mr. Dexter. Touatt' records tliem ia Wicklovv in 1831, Sampsou* records 

 them in Derry iu 1815, WakefiehP records them in Cork in 1814, and Tiglie, 

 in his Survey of Kilkenny,*' published in 1802, tells of Kerry cattle coming 

 to Kilkenny, and makes special reference to a bull which is a Dexter rather 

 than a true Kerry : — " The Kerry cows are often driven into this country for 

 sale ; they are preferred in Dairies for their quantity of milk, as well as for 

 the low price they bear even compared with their diminutive size. ... 

 Their size often does not exceed a moderate sucking calf ; when put on good 

 grass, they fatten in a greater degree than the cattle of the country. . . . 

 Their shapes are often very good ; a bull of this breed, exhibited at Durrow 

 in July last, was allowed to be nearly perfect in his points." A quotation 

 from Arthur Young" shows that, even in his day (1776J, there were at least 

 two types of cattle in Kerry, and suggests that one of them was the Dexter 

 as we now know it : — " The poor people's lieifers sells at three years old at 

 30s. ; their breed is the little mountain, or Kerry cow, which upon good land 

 gives a good deal of milk. I have remarked, as I travelled througli the 

 country, much of the Alderney breed in some of them." 



(iii) Wakefield*^ not only speaks of two kinds of cattle on tlie borders 

 of Kerry, but tells how cattle of Dexter type were produced : " In the 



' Cattle: their Breeds, Management, and Diseases, 1834, p. 185. 



^ Survey of Londonderry, p. 205. ^Account of Ireland, vol. i., p. 336. 



^Survey of Kilkenny, 1802, p. 309. 'A Tour in Ireland, me -19 {11 80), vol. ii., 



^ Account of Ireland, \o\. i., p. '6S6. 11.86. 



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