108 ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
In relation to their adaptability to fatten, it is said to be a remarkabla 
peculiarity of the breed, but they take a long time to mature. At three 
to four years of age they will not dress more than three to four hundred 
pounds of beef to the fore quarters. They are not however beef cattle, 
nor are they adapted, in this country, to dairying, except by mixing, to 
improve the messes. In fattening, however, when of mature age, they 
thrive most rapidly, and tho beef in point of being well marbled, in flavor, 
and tenderness, is not excelled by that of any other breed. 
With proper care and breeding, there would seem to be capabilities in 
this breed well worth perpetuating and improving, especially now that 
dairying as a distinctive branch of agriculture is assuming such proportions 
in the United States, and particularly in the West. 
In relation to constitution, hardiness, etc., the authority last quoted 
eevs : “It is already observed, tho hardy constitution of the Kerry most 
enhances its value ; for dairy purposes especially a remunerative yield is 
obtained on what would be to other animals ‘starvation fare.’ In the 
depth of tho winter season I have not only known tho animals to livo 
jumping from rock to rock, and from cliff to cliff, picking a. coarse scanty 
bite from among the mountains, but with very small additional keep at 
the farmsteading, whither they come to be milked morning and evening, 
to actually thrive under the circumstances. F ew people think of housing 
the Kerry, either night or day, at any period of the year. When not 
giving any milk they remain for months away concealed in the ravines of 
mountain passes, seeking the best shelter they can from the excessive rain 
and snow storms with which their abodes are periodically visited. The 
hair is thick but fine and long — a provision of nature typical of cold 
latitudes. 
“What, however, is far more singular in the constitution of the breed, 
Is the readiness with which it adapts itself to circumstances of a wholly 
reverse character. In acclimating breeds of cattle, sheep, or pigs, the 
transition must be gradual ; but with the Kerry we have it suddenly and 
indiscriminately transferred from its homo in tho mountains to the richest 
grazing valleys which our island can boast of without experiencing the 
slightest change in regard to health. Not alone this, but we havo'seen 
the beasts ushered at once into the dairy sheds, and there confined for 
years, in the closest bondage, without any apparent effect on the constitu- 
tion. They further enjoyed the full benefit of the change as well as if 
the new abode was their native habitation. It was for a time believed 
that the frame of the breed was impregnable to pleuro-pneumonia, or 
other contagious diseases. Recent experiments which have been con- 
ducted have failed to establish this view.’*,, 
