FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



From Venus Victrix wa> descended " Hecuba," by Hopewell .from a 

 dam by Hamlet out of a Leonard cow.- She was in color a dense red; 

 a large animal on short legs ; when not in milk laying on flesh with 

 wonderful rapidity ; and when in milk she wax what every dairy cow 

 ought to be, a great deep milker, with capacious udder. From this 

 cow the unrivalled bull. " Windsor." was descended, the progenitor 

 of the bull " Royal Windsor." whose portrait is given on page 109. 



If we retrace our steps to the year 1810. when the Collings I^ros, 

 parted with their celebrated bull Comet for a small sum of 1000 

 guineas, and study the history of development of the beef breeds 'of 

 cattle of Great Britain and Ireland, we cannot be but impressed with 

 the plain truth that excessive feeding and in-and-in breeding had at 

 that early date been in operation but possibly not to the enormous 

 extent which obtained in the fifties. It was not till about the fi-ities 

 that Bates' Longhorned Durhams which were noted milkers were 

 almost completely absorbed by the Shorthorns. Of these truths we 

 have ample proof by following closely the great change in type which 

 immediately followed the importation of all classes of cattle arriving 

 in New South Wales from the old country. 



The very fact of such cows as Venus Victrix and Hecuba being 

 condemned by competent beef judges in England for possessing points 

 prized by dairymen proves conclusively that the aim of the beef- 

 breeders of E-ngland in 1850 was to -stamp out the dairy quality of 

 their stud Shorthorns. And, of course, the same applies to those men 

 who fancied other breeds of beef-producing animals. 



Depending, as the New South Wales breeders were, on the English 

 breeders for their stud animals during the period under review, it is 

 patent that the dairy quality of our herds was soon influenced. There 

 were, however, a few notable Shorthorn bulls imported to the colony 

 about this period, among which we may mention the bull Lablache, 

 by Prince imperial (15,095 C.H.B.), imported by Mr. Clark Irvine, 

 Tomki, Richmond River, in 1858 ; Inkerman, by Duke of Hamilton 

 (19,618 .C.H.B.), dam Play-lair, by Inkerman (14,730 C.H.B.), im- 

 ported by Mr. John W. Chisholm, of Wollogorang, in 1863. i.ut 

 iven these bulls were in every sense beef animals, and only gave 

 good results from a dairyman's point of view when their progeny 

 were mated with essentially dairy cattle. 



f 



The writer often heard plx}. < settlers who had, so to speak, grown up 

 with this State, say as far back as forty years ago that in theiri boy- 

 hood days the " Madagascar'^.breed of cows and the old Longhorns 

 were infinitely superior in every respect for dairying purposes than 

 any breed of dairy cattle introduced here since 1850. 



The most a cattle breeder can do with regard to the past history 

 and origin of our breeds of dairy cattle is to study and reflect. In 

 order to, study the past he must endeavour to grasp those facts placed 

 before him by early writers whose humble pens may perchance carry 

 them through the scenes of the early developments >f many a valu- 

 able herd of cattle, where neither his horse, or for the matter of that 

 a railway train, could coaivey him. In -following these writers he must 

 reflect on the great length of time spent by the ancients in order to 

 perfect their Hocks and herds. For be it remembered among those 

 who decry the breeds of cattle that obtained prior to tlhe days of 

 Bate*, Collings, or Booth, we rarely, if ever, lind the noble, the high- 

 minded, or the well-educated. Nearly all the critics are from the 

 niMiv modern type^ <>f cattlemen. It mu>t be remembered, therefore, 

 that the refutation of theorie> and remedy of error- of eat tie breeding 



102. 



