106 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR 
November. So considering the noble milking powers of this breed, and 
their well-known ability as cheese-makers, their outcome in butter should 
be considered satisfactory. 
The Kerry Cow. 
In Ireland, from time immemorial, there has existed two distinct races 
©f cattle that were valuable in their day and time ; one a long-horned 
breed, and the other belonging to the middle-horns and considered 
an aboriginal breed. Of the long-horns we have already made what 
mention is necessary here, except that we may add that from their resem- 
blance to the English long-horns, they have been supposed to have had 
the same origin ; but whether the English family came from Ireland, or 
vice versa, is not known ; history is silent on the subject, and it matters 
but little to this generation. The middle-horns and the short-horns are 
the valuable cattle of the present day, and they will be the cattle of tho 
future. 
The other representative branch of the genus Bos in Ireland, the 
cattle of Kerry, or as they are now termed, Kerry cattle, are worth moro 
than a passing mention, because there have been representative animals 
imported to the United States, and they may have value in some moun- 
tainous countries of the United States, and the far Northwest, for their 
extreme hardiness, their facility in shifting for themselves, and their 
adaptability in fattening when not in milk. As a breed they are rare, 
and even in the last century were not to be found except inland on the 
mountains. They are described by Youatt as small, light, active and 
wild. 
The Kerry at Home. 
The head is small, although there aro exceptions to this in various 
parts ; and so numerous, indeed, are these exceptions, that some describe 
the native Irish cattle as having thick heads and necks ; the horns are short, 
as compared with the other breed, all of them fine, some of them rather 
upright, and frequently, after projecting forward, then turning backward. 
Although somewhat deficient in the hind-quarters, they arc high-boned^ 
and wide over tho hips, yet the bone generally is not heavy. The hair is 
coarse and long ; they are black-brindled, black, or brindled, with wkito 
faces. Some are finer in the bone, and finer in the neck, with a good eye 
and sharp muzzle, and great activity. 
They arc exceedingly hardy ; they live through the winter and some- 
times fatten on their native mountains and moors ; and when removed to 
a better climate aud soil they fatten with all tho rapidity of the aboriginal 
