FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Estate, Shcllharbor : " They were," said he, " of the improved Craven 

 or new type of Leice>ter breed of cattle and amounted to many 

 hundreds and for regularity and size and general contour imnu-a-ur- 

 ablv superior to any similar number of cattle to be seen nowadays. 

 Johnnie Ritchie, that prince of bush riders, with others, including 

 the native black, Billy Rroughton, were ever busy collecting them. 

 They all carried Mr. Wentworth's brand, DW." 



In 1855 Sir Charles Fitzroy, Governor of New South Wales, re- 

 tires, and is succeeded by Sir William Denison. formerly Governor 

 of Tasmania, and the first railway in New South Wales Sydnev to 

 Parramatta is opened. Steam communication with England is 

 stopped owing to the Crimean War. The Sydney Mint was opened ; 

 and an attempt made to fortify Port Jackson, The first electric tele- 

 graph line is opened to South Australia. Responsible government is 

 established in New South Wales. 



In 1855 Mr. William Lee, of Bathurst, imported a Shorthorn cow, 

 " Crocus," with a roan bull calf at 'foot, got by Grand Turk (12,969, 

 C.H.B.). This young bull was named Grandmaster. In i8=;6 Messrs. 

 Cox Bros., of Mudgee, imported a Shorthorn bull named Middleham 

 (16,562). Middleham was bred on the same lines practically as Mr. 

 David Johnston's (Illawarra) imported bull Melmoth, and when his 

 stock was mated with those of Mr. Lee's Grandmaster there were 

 great milking qualities in the offspring as the result of such matiners. 

 Mr. Thomas Lee's Priam was bred on the lines just mentioned. 

 Priam's stock need no comment further than this : They were good 

 milkers. 



In 1856 Messrs. F. and A. Cox, of Mudgee, imported a Shorthorn 

 bull named Middleham (16,562), which in due course sired Priam 

 (202). Priam's dam, Jenny, was by Nugget, Nugeet by Melmoth. In 

 i860 the Messrs. Cox imported Sandysike, by Rufus (22.811), &c. 

 Sandysike sired Primrose (223). Mr. Robert Lowe, of Wilbetree, 

 Mudgee, purchased a full brother of Primrose from the Messrs. Cox, 

 of Mudgee, which he mated with a Middleham cow. The result o-f 

 this mating was a bull calf, which was purchased by Mr. John Box- 

 sell, of Berry, in the sixties. There was much of the beef Shorthorn 

 in Mr. Boxsell's bull, but he left some excellent dairy animals be- 

 hind his track throughout the Berry district. 



In 1810, twenty-two years after the founding of the colony, the 

 sheep numbered 25,888, and the cattle 12,442; by 1821 the sheep had 

 more than quadrupled, being 119 777, while the cattle, 91,235, were 

 sevenfold the old figure. Further evidences of rapid pastoral expan- 

 sion were the half-million sheep and quarter-million cattle of 1828. 

 Further, from 58,000 in 1843, horses had increased to 116.000 in 1851 : 

 that is, doubled in less than a decade. Horned cattle had gone >irom 

 850,000 to 1,375.000 ; and pigs from 54.000 to 65,000. In the latter 

 year, in what might roughly be classed as settled districts, there were 

 81,000 horses, not unnaturally as against 35,000 in unsettled regions ; 

 450,000 cattle, half as many as in the unsettled. Thus in 1851, tin- 

 year of the great International Exhibition in London, which is still 

 remembered, the then remote Antipodes were making giant strides, 

 prophetic of future .pastoral importance. And by 1858 the figures 

 were 200,000 horses, over two million cattle, and qj.ooo pigs. 



In the m:nth of October, 1858, the lung plague of cattle, or con 

 tagitms iileuro pneumonia, made its lir.M appearance in Australia. This 

 disease was introduced through an English Shorthorn cow imported 

 by Mr. 1'oadle. of Melbourne. The malady ravaged his herd for ne irly 

 a year before it drew tin- earm-M attention of the colonists. In Sep 

 tember, 1859, we are informed by the " Argus" that a meeting ot 

 stockowners had ju.-t received die report of a committee, and decided 

 to slaughter tin- iniYcu-d herd and reimburse the owner by publ: 

 scriptton. 



60. 



