PART I. 



CHAPTER I. 

 INTRODUCTORY. 



In writing history it is not easy to distinguish between what we 

 have seen, heard, read, or even practised. This is particularly the 

 case when one writes for the public, where there are always certain 

 formalities and many considerations to be observed. Reason and ex- 

 perience tell us that to be able to form a proper conception of the 

 advancement in dairying, its development in New South Wales, and. 

 to describe its many material and moral aspects it is necessary to 

 nave lived and travelled for a considerable time in the country, and to 

 have been in constant intercourse with the people engaged in the 

 industry, never tiring of asking questions, and taking careful observa- 

 tions O'i their systems of breeding dairy cattle. 



Few men rise completely above the circumstances which surround 

 them. Few there are who incur great danger for the sole cause of 

 truth. There are cases in which silence is not only prudent, but 

 obligatory ; and therefore the reader must pardon the writer for not 

 saying all he had on his mind, if he says nothing contrary to it 



When the idea first caught on with the writer of placing on record 

 the many things that interested him whilst reading the histories ot 

 practical pioneers, together with the accounts of their stock, and 

 chatting with these old pioneers and noting down their experiences, 

 as well as when travelling over the scenes of these operations, he was 

 fully alive to the fact that we are not always able to acquire know- 

 ledge of the existence of a thing by ourselves, but that we must avail 

 ourselves of the testimony of others; and that two conditions are re- 

 quired to prevent this testimony from leading us into error namely, 

 that the witness be not himself deceived, and that he has no desire 

 to deceive us. 



In a work of this kind many interesting stories of pioneering days 

 must be omitted for obvious reasons. Statements have to be made to 

 show facts which have to be stripped of their personal bearing. A 

 repetition of facts relating to the history of the various herds of cattle 

 in use by the pioneer breeders could not well be avoided owing to 

 the few notable cattle breeders being largely associated in so many 

 localities. These and many other obstacles have to be overcome as 

 far as the writer's abilities served him whilst bringing a nebulous mass 

 of notes and references into a somewhat concrete form. 



The chief object of this work is to trace the origin of those cattle 

 which, at one time or another, were introduced into the Illawarra and 

 other districts of this State, and trace which of those breeds had been 

 introduced and reproduced in the Cumberland, Camden, Illawarra, and 

 Shoiilbaven districts from surrounding regions. 



The dairy cow and her various characteristics are, of course, quite 

 familiar to everyone conversant with cattle raising. Nevertheless, 

 opinion varies as to what constitutes a really first-class dairy cow, and 



