FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



re-established their own authority. Barbarians when the Romans in- 

 vaded them comparative barbarians still held power over the people 

 when the Romans went out. The adjoining, and even less civilised 

 people of Scotland, were hardly worth a conquest by the Romans, had 

 they sought it. They held their own mountain fortresses, and barren 

 islands, and only suffered by the occasional inroads of neighboring 

 Continental invaders, who long afterwards ravaged England fo^ the 

 Sake of plunder, cattle being their chie-' orize. 



With the conquering Saxons, in the fifth century, came into England 

 some better dawnings of civilisation, and progress in the arts of life, 

 until the year 596. which year is ever memorable, being the arrival of 

 St. Augustine in Britain. But it is unnecessary in a work of this nature 

 to touch upon the great work o-f St. Augustine in Britain. In 10%, 

 William, Earl of Normandy, subdued the inhabitants of Britain in the 

 memorable Battle of Hastings, and after this Norman invasion in the 

 eleventh century, under the rule of William, began a system which 

 has since obtained in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland to wit, 

 landlordism caused by the division of the lands among the retainers 

 of the conquering invaders. With the dominion o-f Normans came 

 the division of the land into the great estates whch were given away 

 by the Conqueror to his retainers, and the gradual sub-division and 

 settlement of those estates into farms, the establishment of tenantry, 

 and after a long period of this rule, the Great Charter won by the 

 English barons from King John, in 1215. 



It is beyond cavil that, with the coming of St. Augustine, Rome again 

 and more powerfully than before, through her missionaries, resumed 

 her sway in humanising the people, and introducing fresh elements of 

 civilisation. From the evidences that yet remain, it is not by any 

 means unreasonable to determine what plants and animals were sub- 

 jugated and cultivated in England during that period which includes 

 the fifth and the thirteenth centuries of the Christian Era. 



Watkins, in his "Gleanings of the Natural History of the Ancients." 

 says: "The cattle in use during that period, in all probability were the 

 ancestors of the -few semi-wild cattle at present living in parks at 

 Chillingham, and a -few other localities,." 



Too much stress has been laid by most writers on the fact, that, 

 among these semi-wild herds found in England, Scotland, and Wales, 

 some are white, others black; whilst even the "polled" nnd "hnmlev" 

 species of ox have their representaives in these semi-wild white and 

 black herds, in order to prove a variety of aboriginal origin for the 

 whole group. But Darwin seems to clear away much of the mystery 

 which hitherto hung round the origin of these animals, when he says: 

 *' Color is the most fleeting of all our animal characteristics; whereas, 

 one of the most important factors in forming the various varieties of 

 cattle has been almost entirely overlooked, viz., the power of man to 

 seize upon and perpetuate desirable properties." 



As regards colour in cattle, scores of instances could be shown 

 where calves from choice cows have been destroyed, on account of a 

 broken color, and when the calves of inferior cows were kept, simply 

 because their colour was fashionable at the time. Tf the colour line 

 had been drawn with Major and Baronet, those bulls would have 

 gone into the veal market, or, i-f we were to take "Admiral Roundrib " 

 bred by Mr. Robert McDougall, of Victoria, the property of Mr. 

 Thomas Lee, of Woodlands. Bathurst. got by Master Athelstane (14, 

 932, C.H.B.X dam Aurora IV. by Fusilier (12,912. H.C.B.), 9, d . (old 

 Aurora), bred by the Circular Head Company, Tasmania. \vo will dis- 

 cover tbr.t this bull was mottled roan, a colour not admired by Short- 

 horn breeders. There are many such instances on record. 



When Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston deposed Governor Hligh in NVw 

 South Wales he ruled for a time the di-siinios of this country. He 

 was soon, however, recalled to England, and came back Robert John- 

 ston, Esq., and settled on his estate, AnnamlaK-. near Sydney. His 



146. 



