FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Suffolk Dun, red polled Norfolk held their own in the battle 

 of the breeds and the colors for many years in the colony. 



Notwithstanding' all these instances which we have gone to the 

 trouble to point out where white bulls have proved to be of undoubted 

 worth, yet even to this day that color is despised by breeders. We 

 can remember when very few dairies in Ulawarra or Shoaihaven were 

 not supplied by milk pumped by willing hands in streams from one 

 or more black polled cows in the herd. We can all remember the 

 ballys. the blacks, the browns, the brindles, and old Sir John Robert- 

 son's remainders. But when one turns round about to think, the 

 white calves invariably went to the dogs or the pigs or the Sydney 

 market. One could go farther afield and mention Mr. Greive's herd 

 of Durhams en the Clarence River. That gentlenyu; 1 bred a white 

 bull that had a famous name as the sire of dairy stock as far south 

 as the Wilson and Maria Rivers, where a Mr. Doyle bred valuable 

 dairy cattle from him. Again, let us turn south, and we find that it 

 was an imported white bull that laid the foundation of Wren's Tar- 

 ragando Estate herd. One could go on enumerating ca>e 

 after case where white bulls have done good service, but 

 in only one instance can the writer remember seeing a herd 

 of white cattle. That was on the Duntroon Estate (belong- 

 ing to Mr. Campbell), situated in the Queanbeyan district. 

 A Mr. Tully was in charge, and he was an admirer of white 

 cattle. The battle or fads of the colors, however, must not be con- 

 sidered a modern invention, like the battle of the breeds, as we read 

 in Virgil, who wrote during the time ancient Rome held sway over 

 the nations of the earth. In recording a contest between two rival 

 lovers he says (Pastoral iii., page 10): 



" To bring it to the trial will you dare, 

 Our pipes, our skill, our voices to compare ? 

 My brinded heifer to the stake I lay : 

 Two thriving calves she suckles twice a day. 

 And twice besides her beestings never fail, 

 To store the dairy with a brimming pail. 

 Now back your singing with an equal stake. 



Again Virgil speaks of the white steer used -for sacrificial purposes 

 when he says (Aeneis viii., page 384) : 



" An animal off'ring in the grove shall b'eed. 



A snow white steer, before thy altar led. 



Who, like his mother, hold; aloft: his head 



Butts with his threat'ning brow, and bellowing stands, 



And dares the tight, and spurns the ye. low sands." 



In the Al Koran we read: "And when Moses said unto his people, 

 ' Verily God commandeth you to sacrifice a cow,' they answered, 'Doth 

 thou make a jest of us ?' Moses said, ' God forbid that I should be 

 one of the foolish.' They said, ' Pray for us unto the Lord, that He 

 would show us what cow it is.' Moses answered, ' He sayeth she is 

 neither an old cow nor a young heifer, but of middle age between 

 both ; do you therefore that which you are commanded.' They said, 

 ' Pray for us unto thy Lord that He would show us what cow it is 

 and what color she is of.' Moses answered. ' He sayeth she is a red 

 cow, intensely red, her color rejoiceth the beholden.' They said, ' Pray 

 for us unto the Lord that He would further show us what cow it is, 

 for several cows with us are like one another, and we. ii God pleases, 

 will be directed.' Moses answered, ' He sayeth she is a cow not 

 broken to plough the earth, or water the field, a sound one, there is 

 no blemish in her.' They said, ' N*>w hast thou brought the truth.'" 



Probably if we had time to examine the musty >helves of the o d 

 bookstalls we would discover that the ancient* had mnstered those arts 

 in breeding which seem to be l<t to n>. Thn- far we know that for 

 sacrilicial purposes at least they bred cattle of one pure color, whether 



140. 



