FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Smythson had done before him, to periodical scale tests. Still, he 

 does not seem to have struck out any special herd line for himself 

 till he took a fancy for the Duchess tribe. Charles Colling assured 

 him that the cow which he bought in 1784 out of Stanwick Park was 

 the best he ever had or ever saw. and sold him her great grand- 

 daughter " Duchess/' by " Daisy Bull" (iS6). She w;is the prelude 

 to Mr. Bates' purchase of "Duchess 1st," by " Comet" (155). the only 

 Duchess at the Ketton sale, and a very cheap lot at iW> guineas, as, 

 independently of her produce, her new owner left it on record that 

 she gave I4lb. oi butter (2ioz. to the Ib.) per week for six weeks 

 after calving. " Belvedere" (1706), of the Princess tribe, was the bull 

 which Mr. Bates selected to bring out the Duchesses. He wa> -mall 

 'ind plain, and with rather rough shoulders, but as soft as a mole 

 in his touch. The brothers Colling had a most faithful disciple in 

 .he Kirklevington philosopher, as his celebrated show bull " Duke 

 of Northumberland" (1940) was by " Belvedere," dam by " Belvedere," 

 And was thus bred on precisely the same principle as four o c their 

 Aeading animals" Comet," " The Ox," " Punch," and '^Broken Horn" 

 rather an instructive comment on the popular timidity which 

 eschews even an approach to in-breeding. His sale in 182:; was to 

 breeders quite a harvest, owing to the quality of the herd. 



Whitaker, of Burley, held his first sale soon after. He had always 

 gone for milking tribes in his quiet Yorkshire valley, and laid much 

 stress upon the purchase of " Magdalena," by " Comet" (155), the only 

 cow which was kept out of the Ketton sale catalogue. She gave 32 

 quarts of milk a day, equal to 8olb. 



The Booth family began at Studley about 1790, with Teeswaters, 

 and " Twin Brother to Ben" (660) ; and lengthening the hindquarters, 

 tilling up the foreflank, and breeding with a view to that fine deep 

 flesh and constitution which bear any amount of forcing, have been 

 their special aim. It was the late Richard Booth's opinion that no 

 bull had done his herd so much good as " Albion" (14) oi the Alloy 

 blood, and Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Wetherell were quite with him on 

 this point. It may be said that Shorthorns generally have grown 

 smaller in frame, and that there is perhaps not that rich coat and uni- 

 formity of character which marked some of the earlier herds ; but 

 still those who can make the comparison from memory are fain to 

 allow that in their flesh points and general weight the breed knows 

 no decay, according: 1o the best authorities of that time. 



Richard Booth, of Crofton, might be said to have initiated the modern 

 plan of keeping beasts far more in the house, preparing them specially 

 with a view to shows. No blood has been more wide'y spread than 

 that o-f " Warlaby" and " Killerby" throughout the United Kingdom, 

 or commanded a finer bull-lending trade ; and it was from " Butter- 

 cup," a daughter of '* Brampton Rose," and crs>ed with Booth's 

 .'cweller (10,354), that " Butterfly" sprang, the chief foundress, with 

 ' Fredrick (11,489) of the Townley herd, whose victories in the store 

 and fat shows combined are wholly without parallel. 



Mr. Bates had two very favourite maxims one that he '' could find 

 forty men fit to be a Premier for one tit to judge Shorthorns" ; and 

 the other that there was "no place -for Shorthorn-, like the Valley 

 of the Wharfe." The Messrs. Whitaker and Fawkes. of Farnley, have 

 proved this to the full ; but it was left to Major Gunter to found a 

 second Kirklevington on its banks, and to vow that eternal allegiance 

 to the Duchesses and Oxfords which their great founder had done 

 Major Gunter previous to his purchase of the Duchess and Ox-ford 

 tribes had only a feu Alderneys and ordinary Shorthorns on his es- 

 tate, according to the English writers. 



The keen competition of the American buyers for the animals of these 

 tribes at the Fortworth sale on August 24th, 1853. stimulated his am- 



114. 



