CHAPTER XXXII 



THE BREEDER 



The story of the breeder, in so far as it belongs to the 

 earHest pastoraHsts, has already been told. After that 

 earliest importation the others were " casual and hetero- 

 geneous." At different times the small buffalo breed 

 was imported from Calcutta. An Andalusian cow was 

 left by a Spanish ship in 1794. A hornless English bull 

 and cow were sent from St. Helena in 1796, and they 

 greatly improved the existing breeds. The first breeders 

 took their stock where they could find them. They 

 imported cattle from India, and some blood, now in- 

 finitesimal in amount, of a hump-backed Brahmin breed, 

 still flows in Australian cattle. Sheep of a fine quality 

 were yet harder to be procured, and it was by means of 

 chance importations from the Cape and gifts from the 

 royal stud in England, that the merino was domesticated. 

 With a strong faith in the possibilities of the climate, 

 though in the teeth of the prediction that not wool but 

 only hair could be grown on tlie backs of Australian sheep, 

 John McArthur and Samuel Marsden persevered with 

 their self-imposed task, and they soon engendered the 

 expectation in England that they would eventually 

 produce wool equal to the finest Saxon. They, or their 

 successors, were far to surpass all existing breeds. The 

 genial climate, aided by the rich and succulent native 

 grasses, was favourable to all stock, but was most of all 

 favourable to the sheep, especially the merino. It made 

 practicable the rapid blending of types and varieties to 

 such an extent that, in a comparatively few years, 

 AustraUa has traversed all of the stages passed through 



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