WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD DAIRY BULL. 



father imported the cow you speak of, and she had a calf which 

 was not sold, but brought from Sydney to Bathurst in a crate 

 on a cart, the cow following. Yours -faithfully, James Lee." 



" Major," however, in the face of the fact that he had no pedigtee, 

 was mated with some of the best dairy cowsjthat ever looked through 

 a bail, and the result was that his progeny were second to nothing 

 in the world as milk and butter producers, while " Theodore's" stock, 

 with all their fashionable ancestry, drifted away among the beef 

 Shorthorn breeders and were lost to the dairymen of Illawarra, who 

 might otherwise have turned them to dairy use. 



Reverting again to the Illawarra breeders of the forties and early 

 fifties those years when high prices made wheat, maize, and pota- 

 toes the staple products of the small settlers, and when butter was 

 oaten 2s. 6d. and 3s. per Ib. Messrs Terry Hughes, Johnston, Cs'- 

 borne, Lomax, Brown, Evans, and Captain Addison were in posses- 

 sion of the finest specimens of the Shorthorn, Longhorn, and Lincoln 

 tribes ; and the smaller settlers were possessed of mixtures of the 

 then known breeds and their various crosses, which were all good 

 milkers and good doers. Ihe British emigrants who had come to 

 settle on these rich coastal lands were as a rule good judges of dairy 

 cattle, many having gained their experience at the cattle fairs in their 

 native countries, where they had learned the impoi tance of keeping 

 good bulls in their herds, no matter for what purpose their produce 

 was intended whether meat, butter, or milk. 



The two first to establish high-class Ayrshire herds on the coast 

 were the Messrs. Berry, at Shoalhaven, and a Mr. John Wylie, of 

 Dunlop Vale, near Wollongong. Messrs. Befry afterwards purchased 

 the greater portion of Mr John Wylie's herd. At either of these 

 places young Ayrshire bulls and heifers could be obtained by the 

 settlers, and many availed themselves of this great boon. Wylie lived 

 on the Dunlop Vale Estate, part of which was sold to a Mr. Irvine, 

 a son-in-law of Mr. William Howe, of the celebrated Glenlee Estate. 

 Mr. Irvine called his part of the estate Newton, and afterwards used 

 Glenlee bulls, which were a mixture of Durham, Shorthorn, Devon, 

 Ayrshire, and Alderney. The Messrs. Berry imported, as is mentioned 

 elsewhere, large numbers of the Freisian or magpie cattle ; but after 

 the death of Mr. John Berry in 1849, who had sole control of the 

 cattle, no great interest was taken in keeping that valuable collection 

 of the several breeds of dairy stock pure. After mat gentleman's 

 death things in the cattle breeding line drifted. The Messrs. Berry 

 kept their dairy cattle in what were termed mobs, with an old man 

 named Paddy the Rider in charge. The more practical of the settlers 

 had their fancies in stock, of course, in fact, had their fancies and 

 fads in stock raising then as now. 



But as a rule the majority did not trouble much about breeds, 

 varieties, or even sub-varieties. So long as there was plenty of milk 

 in a cow's udder morning and evening she was 'forgiven for what was 

 termed " the minor faults," such as color of hair and the desired 

 crook of her horn, and allowed a prominent place in the best paddock. 

 The dairymen of those days believed that they could establish any 

 breed they liked, whether it was Shortho'rn, Longhorn, Lincoln, or 

 Ayrshire, provided they could get a sufficiency of good bulls of the 

 breed they wished to establish 'from the larger and more careful 

 breeders. Their idea was to get pure bred bulls -from the breeders men- 

 tioned, and place them among their heavy milkers composed as some 

 of them were of blacks, browns, brindles, blues, and Dallies, and after 

 the fourth cross with careful culling they would have to all appear- 

 ances, as the case might be, either a Longhorn, Shorthorn, Lincoln, or 

 Ayrshire, not only in general appearance but in type and color. 



The smaller settlers had every opportunity of getting good bulls, as 

 all the breeders mentioned had not only imported bulls and cows of 



