WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD DAIRY BULL. 



Acting on this hypothesis, he was careful to select such well-framed 

 cows only as evinced, by an ample capacity of chest, a robust con- 

 stitution and a predisposition to fatten, and such moderate-sized males 

 as possessed in the highest degree then attainable the particular ex- 

 ternal points and proportions be deemed desirable to impress upon 

 his herd. 



A dairy farmer under Lord Harewood, a Mr. Broader, of Fair- 

 holme, in the parish of Ainderby, appears to have possessed some cows 

 having the qualifications required. Tradition speaks 01 them as un- 

 usually fine cattle for that period; good dairy cows, ana great grazers 

 when dry ; somewhat incompact in frame, and steerish in appearance, 

 but of very robust constitution. Previously to the year 1790 Mr. 

 Thomas Booth had bought some cows from these cows. "Strawberry 

 Fairholme," " Hazel" (i.e., flecked roan), and "Twenty Shilling Fair- 

 holme," purchased from Mr. Broader's farm, have the honor of being 

 the ancestresses of several illustrious families of Shorthorns, and it 

 does not require an inventive genius to frame an origin for the 

 "flecked" and "dollar spots" so often found in members of the purest 

 Shorthorn families in Australia, when one comes to look back to the 

 ''Hazel" (i.e., flecked roan) just mentioned, which undoubtedly showed 

 her Longhorned-Durham origin, or, undoubtedly, a Longhorne 1 t:iint 

 in her blood. 



Besides these Fairholme tribes, there was the Halnaby or straw- 

 berry tribe, which also dates from this' period. The first of them was 

 that strawberry red and white line, which, though out of favour at 

 the present day, was then the prevailing color of the Shorthorn. She 

 was bought in the Darlington market, and one of the earliest recol- 

 lections of Mr. R. Booth was of that cow coming home. The type 

 of old Halnaby, of 1792, who is said to have been a very finely made 

 cow, has often been reproduced in her descendants in the herd. 



Mr. Thomas Booth considered this as one of the finest families, 

 quite equal to the Blossom and the Ariadne tribes. Young Albion (15) 

 is the first bull of note in the Halnaby family. He was much used 

 in the herd, and was one of the first that was let out on hire. 



At that period there were, happily, no shows to demand the sacri- 

 fice of the best cattle in the kingdom, or the few that were held could 

 be reached by the majority of cattle attending them only by such long 

 journeys on foot as would be impracticable by animals in such a state 

 of obesity as is now an indispensable condition in order to catch the 

 eye of our so-called judges. High feeding at that time meant no 

 more than good pasture for cows early dried off their milk ; and the 

 term " training" was never heard except in relation to horses. The 

 first breeder who introduced the system, which has since run into 

 ruinous excess of house feeding cows and heifers in summer on arti- 

 ficial food, was Mr. Crofton ; and in that year he, of course, took all 

 before him in the show yards. The general treatment of the females 

 of a herd at that day was a simple hay diet during the winter months. 

 They were put early to breeding, and generally calved at two years 

 old. A few were taken from the lot to milk. The remainder suckled 

 their calves until winter. They were then taken up, dried, and fed off 

 by the time they were three years old ; the same course was pursued, 

 in their turn, with their progeny, until high prices of meat food in- 

 duced forcing. After reading the opinions of such men as we have 

 just quoted few. probably, will be found who would dare to consider 

 the notions of breeding so universal in our dairying centres worthy of 

 a place in the list of systems just mentioned by Messrs. Bruce Lowe, 

 Carr, and the Rev. John Storer. 



From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that whilst some of 

 our early coastal dairymen actually followed a fairly well-defined 

 system of raising dairy cattle, the great majority did nothing beyond 

 the mating of the best animals they could obtain, and then allowing 

 the soil and climate (unsurpassed as it is in any part of New South 

 Wales for the raising of dairy cattle) to do the remainder. 



177 L 



