Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

Ii'ISH LONG HORNS. 79
Whence these long-horns originally came, is a question. There is
no doubt that they very much resemble the English long-horns-, and
have been materially improved by them ; but whether Ireland or
England was the native country of this breed, will never be determined.
Ancient records are silent on the subject; and in both
countries we can trace the long-horns to a veiy remote period.
Many persons have concluded that the English long-horns sprung
from some of the imported Irish ones. Others, however, with more
reason, finding the middle-horns in every mountainous and unfrequented
part of the country, and the long-horns inhabiting the lower
and more thickly inhabited districts, regard the middle-horns as the
pure native breed, and the long-horns to have been a stranger race,
and introduced probably from Lancashire, where a breed of cattle
of the same character and form is found.
IRISH CATTLE.
However this may be, there was a variety of circumstances which
rendered the march of improvement much more rapid in England
than in Ireland. While the British long-horns had materially improved,
those in Ireland had not progressed in the slightest degree.
More than a century ago, zealous agriculturists in Meath com-